"No," he said, "brandy."

White Gazelle obeyed him.

The pirate eagerly drank two or three mouthfuls.

"All was over," he continued, in a firm voice, with sparkling eye, and face flushed by the fever preying on him. "Concealing my rage in my heart, I prepared to leave the table with a smile on my lips.

"'One moment, sir,' my opponent said. 'The game is not over yet.'

"'What do you want more?' I answered him. 'Have you not won?'

"'Oh!' he said, with a gesture of supreme contempt: 'That is true. I have won this wretched sum. But you have a stake still to risk.'

"'I do not understand you, sir.'

"'Perhaps so! Listen to me. There are on this table eighteen hundred thousand piastres, that is to say, a fabulous fortune, which would form the happiness of a dozen families.'

"'Well?' I answered in a surprise.