In the morning they met, took breakfast together, and afterwards sauntered down to visit Don Pedro. As before, Bernardi was conducted straight to the Don's room, and Salter again stationed himself in the closet to listen.
"So you are still successful?" was the first remark he heard.
"Yes, moderately so," replied Bernardi; "but it is strange how cards run sometimes."
"Well, you ought not to be astonished at anything after your long experience in gambling."
"Oh! I'm never astonished," said Bernardi, who had drunk a good deal of brandy before and after breakfast; "but I was thinking how lucky it was that I changed my mind last night about playing those three cards—the jack, ace, and queen."
"How so?" asked Morito.
"Well, if I had played the jack 'coppered,' and the ace and queen 'open,' last night, all the evening, I should have been entirely cleaned out; what do you think of that?"
"I think you were very lucky in having played elsewhere," replied the Don; "but what's the matter with you? What makes you look at me so strangely?"
"I want to find out whether it was you who sent a man to tell Dave Carter, the gambler, how I was playing, and to ask him to fix the cards so that I should lose all I had."
Bernardi's voice was husky with liquor and anger, and he had evidently worked himself up into a great rage; but, in spite of his partial intoxication, he was very determined, and his tones foreboded no good-will to the Don. In a contest of words, however, he was no match for his opponent, and Don Pedro instantly took the most effectual method for quieting his visitor's suspicions.