GARNERED THE MAN ABOUT TOWN I "I SEE you!" Lord Datchet threw his cards down on the table, faces uppermost. Aces!" Mr Tudor glanced at the exposed cards, then threw his hand from him on to the floor. "Kings! How much does that make?" The Earl of Datchet swept the pool over to himself. Its principal contents were little slips of paper, on which some hieroglyphics were inscribed. He sorted these out carefully, adding them to another heap which was at his side. Then he made some calculations in his note-book. "Thirteen thousand six hundred and fifty from you, and four hundred and ninety from Baines." He handed the note-book across the table. Mr Tudor merely glanced at the open page. "I should think we've about made a record at poker. Properly played, it seems that it can be made even hotter than baccarat." Mr Tudor rose from his seat. He took up a A position with his back to the fire, his hands in his trouser-pockets. "Looks like it," he said, a curious smile flitting across his countenance. "But I promised myself that I would never again play baccarat." Silence followed his words. The earl, looking down at his heap of I.O.U.s, drummed with the fingers of his right hand upon the table. Mr Allington looked in front of him, as though a straight flush were staring him out of countenance in the vacant air. Mr Baines seemed sad. It was he who broke the silence. When he rose to his feet it was seen that his sadness was accompanied by an imperfect command of his legs. "I'm off to bed." He drew out his watch with a hand which trembled. "Half-past eleven, b-blest if it ain't! And I'm engaged to lunch at one. I feel like lunch, I-I do." Putting his watch back into his pocket as he did it was an operation of a complicated kind. Datchet, I'll let you have your money when I get home. I don't owe anyone else anything, do I?” No one answered him. The earl, in his turn, rose from his chair: he was sober. "I'll come with you, Baines, if you wait half-asecond; you go my way. Tudor, when will it be convenient to balance? I wouldn't worry you, but I have my Newmarket settling." "You don't suppose I can draw a cheque for thirteen thousand six hundred and fifty pounds at a moment's notice, do you?" "Just so. I can wait until to-morrow." |