"A hundred's the game," says the Englishman, putting up his cue. "One shilling."
I wonder if this is an English custom—to pay your victor a shilling, instead of paying the keeper of the tables. But as there is no one else to pay, I pay the Englishman. Bunker has fallen asleep in his chair.
"Going on the Continent?" the Englishman asks.
"Not at present. We return to London first, and go from there."
"'Ave you got a guide?"
I am on the point of saying that guides are a nuisance I do not tolerate, when the Englishman hands me a bit of paste-board. "There is my card, sir," he says. "A. SHARPE, Interpreter and Courier." On the opposite side I read—
| SPEAKS | SPRICHT | PARLE | PARLA |
| French, | Französich, | Frangais, | Francese, |
| German, | Deutsch, | Allemand, | Tedesco, |
| Italian and | Italienisch u. | Italien et | Italiano ed |
| English | Englisch | Anglais | Inglese |
| fluently. | sehr geläufig. | courrament. | correntemente. |
At present he has charge of this billiard-room, but he is ready to follow me to the ends of the earth for a period of not less than three months. I tell him I can get on without a guide.
"But I would go on the most reasonable terms. I would go for as low as ten pounds a month and my expenses."
"Would you go for nothing?" Bunker wakes up and pops this out at him so suddenly as to quite take his breath away.