"It will turn, it will turn," said Gilbert, complacently; "it cannot last with so good a player as yourself. If we had even cards I should have a poor chance with you."
He poured out brandy for Chaytor and claret for himself. Liquor was always handy when these two were together, and Gilbert never drank spirits. Chaytor emptied his glass, and Gilbert sipped at his and then directed the conversation to their first meeting on the plantation.
"You must remember it well," said Gilbert.
"Of course I do," said Chaytor, ungraciously, helping himself to more brandy. "One doesn't soon forget his dealings with Mr. Gilbert Bidaud."
"Yes, yes, I make myself remembered," said Gilbert, laughing with an affectation of good-humour. "For me, I have never forgotten that alligator. I can see it now, lying without motion among the reeds."
"What are you driving at?" exclaimed Chaytor, to whom, as it happened, Basil had never given any account of the details of this first meeting with Gilbert Bidaud. "If you want to humbug me you will have to get up earlier in the morning, my friend."
"Why, that is certain," said Gilbert, continuing to laugh, but with a strange thoughtfulness in his observance of Chaytor. "I was only recalling an incident that occurred on the morning I arrived on the plantation. We had tramped through the bush, my sister and I, my poor brother having urged us to hasten, and we arrived early in the morning, tired and dusty. Before us stretched a river, and, leaving my sister to rest beneath the wide-spread branches of a tree, I sought a secluded spot where I could bathe. I undressed and was about to plunge into the water, when I beheld lurking among the reeds a monstrous alligator. A workman on the plantation chancing to pass that way, ran down the bank and seized my arm, and pointing to the alligator, said, with reference to a remark I made about being ready for my breakfast, that instead of eating I might be eaten. It was kind of that workman to make the attempt to save me. If it had been you, friend Basil, you might not just then have been so anxious to deprive the monster of a savoury meal."
"It is pretty certain," acquiesced Chaytor, with a sneer, "that I should have left you to your fate."
"Now that is frank and honest," said Gilbert, "and what I like in you. Not for you the trouble of meaning one thing and saying another. It was not unlikely, however, that this kind workman, one of the labourers on the plantation, might have mentioned this incident of the alligator to you."
"Whether it was or wasn't, he didn't mention it. This is the first time I have heard the interesting story."