ill we won! What is more, with a few set-backs, we went on
winning, till presently the sums written down to our credit, for
no actual cash passed, were considerable. And all the while, at
the end of each bout Marnham helped himself to more brandy, while
the doctor grew more mad in a suppressed-thunder kind of a way.
For my part I became alarmed, especially as I perceived that
Anscombe was on the verge of breaking into open merriment, and
his legs being up I could not kick him under the table.

"My partner ought to go to bed. Don't you think we should stop?"
I said.

"On the whole I do," replied Rodd, glowering at Marnham, who,
somewhat unsteadily, was engaged in wiping drops of brandy from
his long beard.

"D----d if I do," exclaimed that worthy. "When I was young and
played with gentlemen they always gave losers an opportunity of
revenge."

"Then," replied Anscombe with a flash of his eyes, "let us try to
follow in the footsteps of the gentlemen with whom you played in
your youth. I suggest that we double the stakes."

"That's right! That's the old form!" said Marnham.

The doctor half rose from his chair, then sat down again.
Watching him, I concluded that he believed his partner, a
seasoned vessel, was not so drunk as he pretended to be, and
either in an actual or a figurative sense, had a card up his
sleeve. If so, it remained there, for again we won; all the luck
was with us.

"I am getting tired," drawled Anscombe. "Lemon and water are not
sustaining. Shall we stop?"

"By Heaven! no," shouted Marnham, to which Anscombe replied that
if it was wished, he would play another hand, but no more.

"All right," said Marnham, "but let it be for double or quits."

He spoke quite quietly and seemed suddenly to have grown sober.
Now I think that Rodd made up his mind that he really was acting
and that he really had that card up his sleeve. At any rate he
did not object. I, however, was of a different opinion, having
often seen drunken men succumb to an access of sobriety under the
stress of excitement and remarked that it did not last long.

"Do you really mean that?" I said, speaking for the first time
and addressing myself to the doctor. "I don't quite know what
the sum involved is, but it must be large."

"Of course," he answered.

Then remembering that at the worst Anscombe stood to lose
nothing, I shrugged my shoulders and held my tongue. It was
Marnham's deal, and although he was somewhat