He returned to the contemplation of the table. At Vidal’s right hand, Mr Fox lolled in his chair, busy with a gold toothpick. He raised a languid hand in greeting to Carlisle. ‘Coming in, my lord? Take the bank?’
A heap of gold and paper lay before Vidal. Carlisle shook his head. ‘Not I, Fox.’
The Marquis tossed off what remained in his glass. ‘I’ll throw you for it,’ he offered.
‘I advise against it, my lard,’ one of the players said mincingly. ‘Vidal has had the devil’s luck all this week.’
‘I’m not dicing to-night,’ Carlisle replied. ‘If you have a place at the table, Mr Comyn here is of a mind to play.’
My lord paused in the act of refilling his glass, and again looked up at Mr Comyn. ‘Oh, it’s you, is it?’ he said carelessly. ‘I thought I knew you. Do you want to throw for the bank?’
‘I thank your lordship, but I would prefer to throw against the bank,’ replied Mr Comyn, and sat down beside Lord Rupert Alastair.
Lord Carlisle, having done what he could to prevent his protégé from joining the table, shrugged fatalistically, and withdrew.
‘Raise you to a hundred, gentlemen,’ Vidal said, and lay back in his chair, feeling in his capacious coat-pocket for his snuff-box. He pulled it out, and opened it, and took a pinch, flashing a quick look round the table. A gentleman in puce satin, and a very large stock buckle, protested that fifty was deep enough.
Mr Fox lifted weary eyebrows, and stretched out his hand for Vidal’s snuff-box. He regarded it closely, and remarked with a sigh: ‘Le Sueur. Email en plain. Very pretty. A hundred, I think you said?’ He put it down and picked up the dice-box.
Someone at the other end of the table said that the game went too deep, but was overruled.
‘Standing out, Cholmondley?’ asked the Marquis.
‘By God, I’m not, then! You’ve too many of my notes under your hand, Vidal. Keep it at fifty.’
‘Raising you to a hundred,’ the Marquis repeated.
Mr Fox took the dice. ‘A hundred it is, and those afraid of it stand out,’ he drawled. He called a main of eight and threw fives. ‘Rot you, Vidal,’ he said good-humouredly, and scribbled his name on a slip of paper, and pushed it across the table.
The red-faced gentleman seated midway down the table opposite Lord Rupert Alastair looked under his brows at the Marquis, and said loud enough to be heard: ‘I’d say it was time another man held the bank. This is a damned one-sided game.’
His neighbour, Mr Bowling, saw the glitter in the Marquis’s eye, and nudged him warningly. ‘Easy, now, easy, Montague,’ he said quietly. ‘Ever known the luck to run evenly?’
Someone standing amongst the spectators said beneath his breath: ‘Vidal’s three parts drunk. There’ll be trouble soon.’
Drunk the Marquis might be, but his speech and intellect were unimpaired. He lay back in his chair, one hand in his breeches pocket, the other with its long fingers curled round the stem of his wineglass; and his hard stare challenged the dissatisfied player. ‘Had enough, Quarles?’
The tone was an insult. Mr Fox took snuff, and looked sideways under the incredible arch of his brows. Lord Rupert picked up the dice-box. ‘Ah, you’re wasting time. I’ll call seven.’ He threw and lost. ‘Rabbit it, I’ve called ’em for the last hour, and the cursed dice turn up aces and threes.’
Montague Quarles said with bitter distinctness: ‘Enough? No, by God, but let someone else hold the bank! What do you say, gentlemen?’ He looked round the table, but met with no response till Lord Cholmondley said gruffly: ‘I’m satisfied. Egad, I hope we know how to stand against a run of bad luck. Too much talk, is what I say.’
The Marquis was still looking at Montague Quarles. ‘There’s a matter of some four thousand pounds in the bank. Throw you for it.’
‘Come, that’s fair enough!’ declared a bluff man on the Marquis’s left.
Mr Quarles said angrily: ‘Damned if I will! Not against you, my lord!’
‘My God, do we sit all night arguing?’ Bowling cried. ‘Let’s be done with this!’ He took up the dice-box, called a main and threw. Vidal pushed a little pile of guineas towards him, and the game went on.
Money passed backwards and forwards, but the bank was still an easy winner at the end of a couple of hours’ play. The Marquis was drinking steadily. So were several others, notably Mr Quarles, whose scowl deepened with each glass. On the Marquis the wine seemed to have little or no effect. His hand was steady enough, and there was only that glitter in his eyes to betray to one who knew him how much he had drunk.
My Lord Rupert, another heavy drinker, had reached the rollicking stage, and was sitting with his wig askew. Mr Fox had broached his second bottle, and seemed somnolent. My Lord Rupert won a little, lost again, and called up the table to his nephew: ‘Rot you, Vidal, this is poor sport! Quicken the game, my boy!’
‘Take the bank, Rupert?’
My lord pulled his pocket linings out, and began to count the guineas that lay before him. It was a difficult business. ‘I make it eleven,’ he announced with a hiccough. ‘Can’t start a bank on ’leven guineas, Vidal. Can’t start bank at Timothy’s on less than sixty guineas.’
The Marquis said recklessly: ‘Raise you to two hundred, gentlemen.’
Mr Fox nodded. Bowling pushed back his chair. ‘I’m out,’ he said. ‘That’s too deep for me, Vidal.’
‘Bank can’t win for ever,’ the Marquis replied. ‘Stay the course, Jack, the night’s young yet.’
Mr Bowling blinked at the clock on the far wall. ‘Young? I make it past four.’
‘That’s young, ain’t it?’ said Lord Rupert. ‘Four? Why, that’s devilish young!’
Mr Bowling laughed. ‘Oh, I protest! I’m a man of sedate habits. Do you mean to take your breakfast here? I’m for my bed.’
‘Sit it out!’ recommended Lord Cholmondley. ‘We’ll break Vidal yet. Vidal! Is that bay mare by Sunshine out of Mad Molly still in your stables? I’ll stake my Blue Lightning against the mare I break your bank before six.’
The Marquis poured more wine. ‘Make it five, and I’ll take you.’
Mr Fox opened his eyes. ‘What’s amiss? You for bed too?’
‘I don’t sit after five,’ the Marquis said. ‘I’m for Newmarket and back again.’
Lord Cholmondley gaped at him. ‘God save us all, it’s not the day of your race? Man, you’re crazy to think to drive to Newmarket! Damme, Vidal, you’re drunk. You can’t do it! And here’s me with a cool five hundred backing you!’
‘Be calm, my loved one,’ mocked Vidal. ‘I drive best when I’m drunk.’
‘But up all night – no, blister me, that’s too much. Get to bed, you madman!’
‘What, to save your stake for you? Be damned if I do! My coach calls for me at five. Does the bet stand? You’ll break my bank before five – your colt to my mare.’
‘I’ll do it!’ Cholmondley said, slapping the table with his open hand. ‘Got an hour, ha’n’t I? Time enough. Where’s the betting-book?’
The bet was duly entered. The waiter was about to remove the book when the Marquis drawled: ‘I’ll lay you a further five hundred I reach Newmarket under the given time, Cholmondley – play or pay.’
‘Done!’ said Cholmondley promptly. ‘Now I’m for you, my boy. Playing two hundred!’
‘Two hundred it is,’ the Marquis agreed, and put up his eyeglass to watch the throw of the dice.
Cholmondley called sixes. Lord Rupert looked solemnly at the dice as they fell on the table. ‘Deuce ace,’ he declared. ‘Bank can’t win for ever, eh, Vidal?’
Mr Quarles, who had been tapping an impatient foot, burst out: ‘I’d say my Lord Vidal can’t lose!’
The eyeglass dangled on its black ribbon from between my lord’s fingers. ‘Would you?’ said
the Marquis gently, and as though he waited for more.
‘Oh, stand out, Quarles, if you can’t stay the course!’ said Cholmondley impatiently.
It was evident that Mr Quarles had reached the quarrelsome stage. ‘I’ll stay the course well enough, sir, but the luck’s too damned uneven for my taste.’
Mr Fox took a mirror from his capacious pocket, and studied his reflection in it. With considerable care he straightened his toupet, and flicked a speck of snuff from the lapel of his coat. ‘Dominic,’ he said wearily.
The Marquis shot him a look.
‘Dominic, how did this place grow to be so devilish vulgar?’
‘Hush, Charles, hush!’ said the Marquis. ‘You interrupt my dear friend. He is about to explain himself.’
The bluff man, who had as yet taken no part in the swiftly brewing quarrel, leaned over Mr Bowling’s vacant chair, and plucked at Quarles’s sleeve. ‘Hold your peace, man. You’re out of tune. Don’t play if you’re shy of the luck, but for God’s sake let’s have an end to this bickering.’
‘I’ll play,’ Mr Quarles said obstinately. ‘But I say it’s time another man took the bank!’
‘Lord, man, there’s a bet on! The bank stays with Vidal.’
‘Dominic,’ said Mr Fox plaintively. ‘Dominic, my dear fellow, I shall have to give up this place, positively I shall have to give it up now the herd has discovered it.’
My lord was still watching Quarles. ‘Patience, Charles, Mr Quarles don’t like to see the bank win. You should sympathise.’
Quarles started up. ‘I don’t like the way this game has gone, my lord,’ he said loudly, ‘and if you won’t give up the bank, I say give us fresh dice!’
His words brought about a sudden uneasy silence. Cholmondley tried to fill the breach, saying quickly: ‘Lord, you’re too drunk to know what you’re saying, Quarles. Let’s get on with the game.’
‘I think not.’ The voice came from the end of the table. The Marquis was leaning forward, his wineglass still in his hand. ‘So you don’t like the dice, eh?’
‘No, I don’t like them, curse you!’ Quarles shouted. ‘And I don’t like your high-handed ways, my lord. They won’t serve. I’ve sat three nights and seen you win –’
He got no further; the Marquis was up and had dashed the contents of his glass full in Quarles’s face. He was smiling now and his eyes blazed. ‘And that’s a waste of good wine,’ he said, and turned and said something to the waiter at his elbow. Mr Quarles, with the burgundy dripping down his front, sprang up and made a clumsy lunge at him. Cholmondley and Captain Wraxall, the bluff gentleman, forced him back.
‘Damn it, you asked for that!’ Cholmondley swore. ‘Take it back, you fool! We all know you’re drunk.’
The Marquis had resumed his seat. The waiter looked frightened, and whispered to him. My lord turned on him with something like a snarl, and the man fled.
Lord Rupert got up rather unsteadily. ‘Fiend seize it, the champagne’s got into my head!’ he said. But the sudden interlude seemed to have jerked him back to sobriety. ‘There’s been enough of this,’ he said authoritatively. ‘You be damned for a fool, Vidal. Can’t you see the fellow’s drunk?’
Lord Vidal laughed. ‘I’m drunk myself, Rupert, but I can tell when a man calls me cheat.’
‘Good God, my lord, you’ll never care for what’s said after the third bottle!’ cried Captain Wraxall.
Lord Cholmondley gave Mr Quarles’s arm a shake. ‘Take it back, man; you’re out of your senses.’
Mr Quarles wrenched himself free. ‘You’ll meet me for this, my lord!’ he roared.
‘Be sure I will,’ said the Marquis. ‘We’ll settle it now, my buck.’
Rupert took up the dice. ‘Break ’em,’ he said briefly. ‘Where’s that rogue Timothy? I want a hammer.’
Sir Horace Tremlett, he of the mincing speech, protested. ‘I vow it’s not necessary, my lard. We know my Lard Vidal, I believe. Break the dice? ’Pon my soul, sir, it’s to insult his lardship.’
‘To hell with that!’ said Rupert. ‘I’m breaking ’em, see? If they’re true, Quarles apologises. That’s fair, ain’t it?’
‘Ay, that’s the best,’ Captain Wraxall agreed.
Mr Quarles was wiping his face. ‘I say my lord will meet me! By God, I’ll not take a glass of wine in the face and say thank you for it!’
Cholmondley spoke in Lord Rupert’s ear. ‘It’s gone too far now. Rot that nephew of yours! What’s to do?’
‘Break the dice,’ Rupert said obstinately. ‘Can’t have it said an Alastair plays crooked.’
‘Oh, you’re as drunk as Vidal! Who’s to say so? Quarles will take it back when he’s sober if you can stop Vidal forcing it on now.’
The waiter had come back into the room carrying a flat case. With a scared look at the Marquis he laid this on the table. Vidal opened it, and it was to be seen that a brace of pistols lay within. ‘Take your choice,’ he said.
Rupert stared. ‘What’s this? Can’t fight here, Dominic. Arrange it for you out at Barn Elms, nine o’clock.’
‘By nine o’clock I shall be in Newmarket,’ said the Marquis. ‘I’ll settle my score before I leave.’
Mr Fox roused himself. He inspected the pistols through his eyeglass and looked inquiringly at Vidal. ‘Where did they come from?’ he said. ‘Don’t carry pistols to gaming houses myself ?’
‘They come out of my coach,’ replied Vidal. He looked at the clock. ‘It waits. Choose, you!’
‘I’m for you!’ Mr Quarles declared. He rolled an eye at Captain Wraxall. ‘Sir, will you act for me?’
‘Act for you?’ exploded the Captain. ‘I’ll have nothing to do with the business. My lord, you’re in no fit case to fight, and I recommend you to go home and let your seconds arrange the matter more seemly.’
Vidal laughed. ‘Not fit? By God, that’s rich, Wraxall. You don’t know me very well, do you?’
‘I am happy to say I do not, sir!’ said the Captain stiffly.
‘Watch then!’ My lord drew a small gold-mounted pistol from his pocket. He levelled it, still lounging in his chair, and fired before any could stop him. There was a big report, and the smash of glass as the bullet shattered the big mirror at the end of the room.
‘What in hell’s name – ?’ began Wraxall furiously, and broke off, staring in the direction of my lord’s pointing finger. One of a cluster of three candles was no longer burning. The voice of Mr Comyn said calmly: ‘Quite remarkable shooting – under the circumstances.’
Lord Rupert, forgetting larger issues, called out: ‘Outed it, begad, and not touched the wax! Good lad!’
The explosion brought those still remaining in the other rooms hurrying to the scene. Vidal paid no heed. ‘Don’t know me very well, do you?’ he repeated, and laughed again.
Cholmondley, casting a glance of rebuke at Rupert, admonished Mr Quarles once more. ‘Go home and sleep on it, Quarles. If you want to fight, fight sober. You’re no match for Vidal else.’
A stout individual dressed in discreet black pushed his way through the knot of men in the doorway. ‘What’s this, gentlemen?’ he said. ‘Who fired that shot?’
Vidal raised his brows. ‘You interrupt, Timothy. I fired that shot.’
The stout man looked aghast. ‘My lord, my lord, what wild work is this? You’ll ruin me, my lord!’ He saw the case containing the pistols and made a pounce for them. My lord’s hand shot out and grasped his wrist. Timothy met his eyes for a moment, and said distressfully: ‘My lord, I beg of you – my lord, don’t do it here!’
He was thrust back. ‘Damn you, stop whining!’ Vidal sprang up, overturning his chair. ‘Am I to sit here till noon while Mr Quarles makes up his mind? Name your friends!’
Quarles rolled a hot eye round the circle. No one came forward. ‘I
’ll act for myself since you’re all so shy,’ he sneered.
Mr Comyn, his sedateness quite unimpaired, rose from his seat. ‘Since it is my Lord Vidal’s honour that is in question it will be wise to have a gentleman to act for you, sir,’ he said.
‘To hell with the lot of you!’ swore Quarles. ‘I’ll act for myself.’
‘Your pardon, sir,’ returned Mr Comyn smoothly, ‘but I think you must see that if you doubt his lordship’s good faith, your seconds should carefully examine these pistols, which I apprehend are his lordship’s own. In short, I offer myself at your disposal.’
‘Obliged to you,’ growled Quarles.
Vidal was leaning on a chair back. ‘That’s a mighty long speech,’ he remarked, with just that faint suggestion of slurring his words together. ‘Is it to insult me, or not?’
‘Such, my lord, is not at the moment my intention,’ replied Mr Comyn.
The Marquis laughed. ‘Didn’t know you had it in you. You’re devilish correct, ain’t you?’
‘I trust I am conversant with the rules governing such affairs as these, my lord. Will you name your friends?’
The Marquis was still looking at him with an amused and not unkindly eye. ‘Charles, you might act for me,’ he said, without turning his head.
Mr Fox arose, sighing. ‘Oh, very well, Dominic, if you must behave so damned irregularly.’ He went apart with Mr Comyn, and they inspected the weapons with due solemnity, and pronounced them identical.
Lord Rupert pushed his way unceremoniously to his nephew’s side. ‘Go put your head in a bucket of water, Vidal!’ he said. ‘Stap me if I ever heard the like of you to-night! Mind you, I don’t say the fellow don’t deserve to have a hole in him, but do the thing decently, my boy, that’s all I ask!’ He broke off to hurl somewhat conflicting advice to Captain Wraxall. ‘Move those candles a shade to the left, Wraxall. Must have the light fair to both.’
The table was pushed back. Mr Fox and Mr Comyn were measuring the paces.
The pistols were presented. My lord took his in what looked to be an alarmingly slack hold. Apparently his uncle did not think so, for he said urgently: ‘Don’t kill him, Dominic!’