The Shadow of Tyburn Tree

came to him he meant to play one of his hidden cards against the card Vorontzoff had put his money on, and deliberately allow the Russian to catch him cheating.

While dressing he had racked his brains in vain for a legitimate method of heading the Russian off from his quarry, and the only means he had been able to think of was to force a duel upon him. However pressing his rival's attentions might be, he felt confident that Georgina set too high a value on herself to succumb to him on the night of his arrival. But given the Saturday afternoon and evening, and all Sunday, for gentle dalliance, if her inclinations tended that way and Fox stressed the urgency of winning the Russian to the interests of the Opposition, it was quite on the cards that she might grant him the opportunity for which he was obviously so eager before the week- end was out. Having already met him several times in London, that, according to the lax standards of the day, would not be unduly to cheapen herself.

Therefore, Roger had argued to himself, his object would be achieved if he could render the Russian hors de combatduring the next, twelve hours. The prospect of a duel had no terrors for him, since he had fought three already, and knew himself to be an extremely accom­plished swordsman. The fact that duels were forbidden in England also gave him few qualms, as the penalties were rarely pressed unless one of the combatants was killed, and he had no intention of doing more than disabling his potential adversary. The problem that remained was how to force a quarrel on Vorontzoff that night so that he would be compelled to fight first thing the following morning.

At this point in his deliberations Roger had found himself badly stuck. To pick a quarrel with a man was easy enough, but while he was Georgina's guest he could not possibly openly insult the Russian. He might by so doing achieve his object, but at too high a price. Georgina would be so disgusted with his behaviour that it might make a per­manent breach between them, and that he was not prepared to risk on any account. It had then occurred to him that this difficulty could be got over if he could so arrange matters that the Russian insulted him. Cheating at cards was by no means unusual, even in private houses, but if the person cheated was a man of spirit he would naturally denounce the cheat; upon which the cheat would either attempt to laugh it off and pay up or declare himself insulted and demand satis­faction. Roger knew that as he was not a habitual gambler, if he handled matters skilfully, no one except Vorontzoff would believe that he had cheated and it would be considered perfectly natural for him to call the Russian out.

In view of his intentions Roger was anxious that he should finish up a loser rather than a winner on the evening's game; but on the other hand he could ill-afford to lose any considerable sum, so during the first round of banks he confined himself to punting in five-shilling chips and on most occasions when he won leaving his money on so that when the cards turned against him at his second, third or fourth double he appeared to be losing quite a lot, although, in fact, he had only lost his original stake. Normally the steady drain of such a policy would have cost him five or six pounds, but it seemed that his luck was in as on two occasions his stake doubled up to the agreed limit of five times and he had to take it off, in each case his five shillings having become eight pounds; so when the bank came round to him he was thirteen pounds in hand.

As each player could limit his bets at will the only chance of any individual losing really heavily was when they took a bank, since they were then pitted against the whole table and had to accept the heaviest bets as well as smaller ones. In this case, five pounds being the limit, if such a bet was left on and doubled up five times, the banker might go down one hundred and sixty pounds against a single player. All the odds were that he would get a considerable part of it back from the others, but it was a risk that had to be faced and a heavy one for Roger. Normally, he would either have passed his bank or sold it, as he had a right to do. Mrs. Armistead had just sold hers to Fox for twenty pounds and Georgina had passed hers. Knowing Roger's financial circumstances she naturally expected him to do the same, so she was surprised and a little worried when she saw him making the cards with the obvious intention of taking it.

After a moment she said: 'I think 'twould pleasure me to take the bank after all; will you sell me yours, Sir? I'll bid you twenty pounds for it.'

Roger was touched by her offer. She was, he guessed, assuming that as he had won money on the round he felt that he ought to give the other players a chance to win it back, and had made the offer solely with the idea of enabling him to avoid the risk of losing more than he could afford. But he smiled at her and shook his head. 'I thank you, Madam, but I've a feeling that my luck is in to-night, so I will take it myself.'

As they had been playing for the best part of an hour he felt that he might quite well take advantage of his first bank to develop his plot, instead of waiting for it to come round to him again. Fox and Vorontzoff were both playing the maximum all the time; Selwyn, Droopy and Georgina were playing in guineas or occasionally more when they felt that they were due for a win, and Mrs. Armistead, like Roger, had confined herself to the lowest stake. Up to about half-way through the deck the bank ran about even, then Fox doubled up three times and knocked Roger down for forty pounds. Soon afterwards Vorontzoff's stake upon the Ace also doubled up to forty pounds, and he still left it on.

It was the chance for which Roger had been waiting. He put down the cards for a moment to take out his handkerchief and blow his nose. While putting his handkerchief back he took an Ace out of his cuff and palmed it onto the top of the pack as he picked the cards up again. He then turned it up on the winning pile and scooped Vorontzoff's forty pounds off the ace.

As he was not a card-sharper the task he had set himself was no easy one. Thelast thing he wanted was for anyone other than the Russian to accuse him of cheating, so he dared not do so openly. He was counting on the fact that habitual players only take particular notice of their own losses, so that if Vorontzoff had more than average ill-luck while his neighbour was banker he would begin to watch the turning of the cards with additional care, and thus spot the cheating while it passed unnoticed by the others.

Towards the end of his bank Roger again blew his nose and, during the process, managed to get a King out of his other cuff. The Russian had doubled up twice on the King and by playing the card Roger took a further twenty pounds off him. Vorontzoff made no remark as Roger raked in the counters, but gave him a rather searching look, so he felt satisfied that during his first bank he had succeeded in arousing his enemy's suspicions.

Fox's forty pound win had hit the bank badly and without the Russian's money it would have shown a loss of twenty-six. As it was, including Roger's original gain of thirteen, he was now forty-eight up. However, he regarded Vorontzoff's sixty pounds as a liability since, had there been no cheating, the Russian might equally well have won double that or lost the lot; so Roger felt that when he had put his rival out of the running for Georgina he was under a moral obligation to return his stakes to him. In consequence, he regarded himself on balance, as now being twelve pounds down.

During the second round of the bank he once more staked only single crowns, but luck being with him in the main he made up eight pounds of his net loss. To all appearances he was doing excellently, as when the bank came to him again he had over sixty pounds worth of chips in front of him; so Georgina, knowing nothing of his secret liability, made no further attempt to protect him from the chances he seemed perfectly content to take.

His bank opened well for him and within five minutes he had taken a profit of over thirty pounds. Selwyn then scooped sixteen off him and Georgina twelve, so two-thirds of the way through the deck he was running more or less even. But the thing which perturbed him was that Vorontzoff was now betting consistently on the Ten, and, not having thought it wise to take too many cards from the spare packs, Roger had no hidden ten to play against him. Having played the ten for some time without any marked success the Russian suddenly changed to the King and his stake began to double up. When it had reached forty pounds Roger casually inquired what the time was. Everybody glanced towards the clock upon the mantelpiece, except Vorontzoff, and as Roger slipped his second King out of his cuff, several of the players murmured: ' 'Tis just on ten.'

Roger played the King, feeling certain that his victim must have seen mm fluff the card on to the top of the pack. As he stretched out his hand to take the stake he expected every instant that Vorontzoff would denounce him, but to his amazement, the Russian let him rake in the counters without making any protest; yet, as he glanced at him he caught a faint, hard smile of understanding in his dark Tartar eyes.

Momentarily, Roger was a further forty up, but his bank ended with a run of ill-luck. Droopy suddenly doubled up on three success­ive Aces and took thirty-two pounds, Selwyn had also been on the Ace and took ten, and on the very last card, a Queen, Fox took twenty. Roger still had a fair pile of chips in front of him, but on check­ing up he found to his considerable alarm that he was now over sixty pounds out of pocket in addition to his moral obligation of a further hundred to Vorontzoff.

He realised now that he had been incredibly foolish to choose cards as a means of getting at the Russian Ambassador; as his plan necessitated his taking the bank, and he had overlooked the fact that, quite apart from any