in the shadow of the
hanging lamp and the candles had guttered out, I distinctly saw
him play some hocus-pocus with the cards, but in the
circumstances made no protest. As it chanced he must have
hocus-pocused them wrong, for though _his_ hand was full of
trumps, Rodd held nothing at all. The battle that ensued was
quite exciting, but the end of it was that an ace in the hand of
Anscombe, who really was quite a good player, did the business,
and we won again.

In the rather awful silence that followed Anscombe remarked in
his cheerful drawl--

"I'm not sure that my addition is quite right; we'll check that
in the morning, but I make out that you two gentlemen owe
Quatermain and myself #749 10s."

Then the doctor broke out.

"You accursed old fool," he hissed--there is no other word for
it--at Marnham. "How are you going to pay all this money that
you have gambled away, drunken beast that you are!"

"Easily enough, you felon," shouted Marnham. "So," and thrusting
his hand into his pocket he pulled out a number of diamonds which
he threw upon the table, adding, "there's what will cover it
twice over, and there are more where they came from, as you know
well enough, my medical jailbird."

"You dare to call me that," gasped the doctor in a voice laden
with fury, so intense that it had deprived him of his reason,
"you--you--murderer! Oh! why don't I kill you as I shall some
day?" and lifting his glass, which was half full, he threw the
contents into Marnham's face.

"That's a nice man for a prospective, son-in-law, isn't he?"
exclaimed the old scamp, as, seizing the brandy decanter, he
hurled it straight at Rodd's head, only missing him by an inch.

"Don't you think you had both better go to bed, gentlemen?" I
inquired. "You are saying things you might regret in the
morning."

Apparently they did think it, for without another word they rose
and marched off in different directions to their respective
rooms, which I heard both of them lock. For my part I collected
the I.O.U.'s; also the diamonds which still lay upon the table,
while Anscombe examined the cards.

"Marked, by Jove!" he said. "Oh! my dear Quatermain, never have I
had such an amusing evening in all my life."

"Shut up, you silly idiot," I answered. "There'll be murder done
over this business, and I only hope it won't be on us."

CHAPTER VI

MISS HEDA

It might be thought that after all this there would have been a