"Lord!—you did!—did you really?"
"So help me——!" exclaimed the man, aghast.
"What's to be done?" quoth Ben, the perspiration bursting out all over his forehead. "We've been made the cursedest fools of by some one!—Hang me if I think the old beast at Fotheringham, or the young cub either, has ever meant"——
"What signifies it? It's all too late now."
"Isn't there any way—eh? To be sure, I own I thought we were pitched a leetle too high with Mr. Gam"——
"But he has you now, though; and you'll find he's a devil incarnate!—But stop, I see"—he seemed, as if a thought had suddenly glanced across his puzzled and alarmed mind—"I'll tell you how to do him, and save yourselves yet."
"O Lord!—eh?" exclaimed Ben, breathlessly.
"But are your men all together?"
"Oh ay! in five minutes' time we could all be on our way to the booth."