“D——d if I do,” exclaimed that worthy. “When I was young and played with gentlemen they always gave losers an opportunity of revenge.”
“Then,” replied Anscombe with a flash of his eyes, “let us try to follow in the footsteps of the gentlemen with whom you played in your youth. I suggest that we double the stakes.”
“That’s right! That’s the old form!” said Marnham.
The doctor half rose from his chair, then sat down again. Watching him, I concluded that he believed his partner, a seasoned vessel, was not so drunk as he pretended to be, and either in an actual or a figurative sense, had a card up his sleeve. If so, it remained there, for again we won; all the luck was with us.
“I am getting tired,” drawled Anscombe. “Lemon and water are not sustaining. Shall we stop?”
“By Heaven! no,” shouted Marnham, to which Anscombe replied that if it was wished, he would play another hand, but no more.
“All right,” said Marnham, “but let it be for double or quits.”
He spoke quite quietly and seemed suddenly to have grown sober. Now I think that Rodd made up his mind that he really was acting and that he really had that card up his sleeve. At any rate he did not object. I, however, was of a different opinion, having often seen drunken men succumb to an access of sobriety under the stress of excitement and remarked that it did not last long.
“Do you really mean that?” I said, speaking for the first time and addressing myself to the doctor. “I don’t quite know what the sum involved is, but it must be large.”
“Of course,” he answered.