and hard: "Cheated at cards."

Dicky's lips tightened. "Where?"

"At Hong Kong."

"Officer?"

"In the Buffs."

Dicky drew a long breath. "He's paid the piper."

"Naturally. He cheated twice."

"Cheated twice--at cards!" Dicky's voice was hard now. "Who was he?"

"Heatherby--Bob Heatherby!"

"Bob Heatherby--gad! Fielding, I'm sorry--I couldn't have guessed, old
man. Mrs. Henshaw's brother!"

Fielding nodded. Dicky turned his head away; for Fielding was in love
with Mrs. Henshaw, the widow of Henshaw of the Buffs. He realised now
why Fielding loathed Hasha so.

"Forgive me for asking him to mess, guv'nor."

Fielding laughed a little uneasily. "Never mind. You see, it isn't the
old scores only that bar him. He's been a sweep out here. Nothing
he hasn't done. Gone lower and lower and lower. Tax-gatherer with a
kourbash for old Selamlik the beast. Panderer for the same. Sweep of the
lowest sort!"

Dicky's eyes flashed. "I say, Fielding, it would be rather strange if he
hadn't gone down, down, down. A man that's cheated at cards never finds
anybody to help him up, up, up. The chances are dead against him. But he
stood up well to-day, eh?"

"I suppose blood will tell at last in the very worst."

"'And while the lamp holds out to burn
The vilest sinner may return--'"

hummed Dicky musingly. Then he added slowly: "Fielding, fellows of that
kind always flare up a bit according to Cavendish, just before the end.
I've seen it once or twice before. It's the last clutch at the grass as
they go slip--slip--slipping down. Take my word for it, Heatherby's near
the finish."

"I shouldn't wonder. Selamlik, the old leper, 'll lay in wait for him.
He'll get lost in the sugar-cane one of these evenings soon."

"Couldn't we..." Dicky paused.

Fielding started, looked at Dicky intently, and then shook his head
sadly. "It's no good, Dicky. It never is."

"'While the lamp holds out to burn...'" said Dicky, and lighted another
cigarette.

Precisely at seven o'clock Heatherby appeared. He had on a dress-suit,
brown and rusty, a white tie made of a handkerchief torn in two, and a
pair of patent leather shoes, scraggy and cracked.

Fielding behaved well, Dicky was amiable and attentive, and the dinner
being ready to the instant, there was no waiting, there were no awkward
pauses. No names of English people were mentioned, England was not
named; nor Cairo, nor anything that English people abroad love to