“This loss spells ruin for Irwin,” said the Major gravely. “He is not in a position to pay such a sum.”
“With his wife’s assistance he could,” chimed in another; “but it would eat up pretty well the rest of her fortune.”
“I call you, gentlemen, to witness that it is not my fault,” said McGregor, who thought he perceived a certain degree of reproach in the faces of the bystanders; but all agreed with him.
Lieutenant Temple, who alone of all those present kept up a certain superficial friendship with Irwin, remarked, “Somebody must go after him to see that he does not do something foolish in his first excitement.”
He turned as if to leave the room, but a call from McGregor stopped him.
“It will be no use, Temple, unless you are able to calm him in some way or other. In my opinion there is only one thing to do. He must be persuaded that the whole affair is only a joke, and that the cards had been shuffled beforehand.”
The Lieutenant went back to the table.
“The suggestion of this way of putting it does you honour, Captain; only I have my doubts if any of us would have the courage to go to him with this manifest lie.”
The silence of the others appeared to confirm this doubt, when the decisive voice of the German guest interrupted with—
“Will you entrust me, gentlemen, with this mission? I know Captain Irwin only slightly, it is true, and should have no reason to interfere with his private concerns; but I hear that it is his wife’s property which has been at stake here, and as I consider Mrs. Irwin a very honourable lady I would gladly do my best to save her from such a heavy pecuniary loss.”