He got up in despair, and was pacing up and down his room, when, on passing the mantel-piece, where he had thrown down the letters, his eye suddenly caught sight of another page, written in a small and hurried hand. It was Dr. Delange's contribution.
"At last!" exclaimed he, "I am sure to find some pithy remarks about
Egypt here—those doctors are such intelligent observers!"
He read as follows:—
"You were a witness, my dear de Pommerelle, of my tortures during the last month of my stay in Paris. Every night I went to the Club. I sat down at the baccarat table, and, obedient to the promise I had given, I contented myself with looking without touching, just as they do in the Public Museums. But, what I suffered! Good Heavens, what I went through! I had but one thought, one dream—to play with de Morin, in accordance with the contract we told you about, and which you thought so original. I won my first fifty louis at carté. De Morin, as the loser, had, consequently, the right on the following day of naming the game. He chose lansquenet, and made his fifty louis at a single coup. To play for two seconds only when we had the whole day before us! It was not right, and I had not reckoned on anything of that sort, so I thought I would give my adversary a lesson. We were on board the steamer, and, as I had lost on the previous evening, I was master of the situation. 'This way, if you please,' said I to my friend, and he had nothing to do but obey.
"I took him on deck, about amidships—a few paces from the funnel. The heat was tremendous, and up the hatchway, by the engine-room, came whiffs of stifling foul air, and the almost insupportable stench of hot oil. Then I quietly took the cards out of my pocket, and said— 'Play away!'
"Morin made a grimace, but the treaty was all the more binding, because we had burnt it and stood on our word of honour—so he had to submit.
"We played at Chinese bezique, at a sou a point, for eight mortal hours. I was regularly done, but so was my adversary, and, to pile up his agony, he lost his thousand francs.
"On the following day the opportunity of taking his revenge was not to be lost. I was walking on the poop, when he came up to me and said smilingly, and in his most dulcet tones—
"'Our contract allows us, you know, to substitute a bet for cards.'
"'I know it,' said I, not seeing his drift.