THE LOADED DICE.
Shafto was located in a quiet hotel in St. Andrew Square, Edinburgh,
whither he had come in hope to raise money to meet the difficulties
in which he had become involved. When away from the splendid
thraldom of Craigengowan--for thraldom he deemed it now--he was daily
and nightly in the habit of imbibing more than he would have ventured
to do there; thus he was becoming slow of speech, with the fishy eye
and the fevered breath of the habitual tippler, even at his years,
while in dress he adopted a style that was a curious combination of
the dandy and the groom.
The many confiding tailors, jewellers, horse-copers, wine-merchants,
and others whom he had honoured by his patronage were now getting
beyond all bounds with their importunity and--as he
thought--impertinent desire to have their bills settled; while,
disgusted with him, Lord Fettercairn had been heard more than once to
say, even to old Mr. Kippilaw:
'If Finella had been a boy I should not have cared so much about
there being no other grandson of my own to ensure the succession and
carry on the title.'
But the peer did not yet know the worst.
Occasional visits to Edinburgh, and still more those to London, were
always involving Shafto in one or other disgraceful scrape; for,
notwithstanding a most liberal allowance, he was often at his wits'
end for money, and was over head and ears in gambling debts. Thus he
was a bitter pill to the patriotic peer, his 'grandfather,' and he
was on the verge, he feared, of dire disgrace, as a whole lot of
post-obits might soon come to light--on the fortune he reckoned would
come to him on Lord Fettercairn's death or his marriage with Finella;
for with two such prospects the Jew money-lenders and other
scoundrels who trade as such, in Pall Mall and elsewhere, under
double names, had seen things in a 'rosy' light, and let him thus
have 'no end of money.'
And now, as a means of recruiting his exchequer for a time, he
bethought him of young Kippilaw, who had been left £30,000
unexpectedly by an uncle in Glasgow, and his first thought was to
flatter and fleece the fellow if he could, though the spruce little
W.S. was on the eve of his marriage with one of the many daughters of
Lord Macowkay, the eminent senator of the College of Justice; so he
invited that gentleman to a quiet little dinner at his hotel, 'Just
to pick a bone--sharp eight.'
Little Kippilaw, who was always flattered by the society of a
prospective peer, as something to talk about in the Parliament House,
accepted with a radiant countenance; and, as he had rather a
showy-looking friend who was passing through Edinburgh on his way to
Drumshoddy Lodge, he asked permission to bring him.
'Certainly, of course,' said Shafto.
'Major Garallan is a client of the firm.'
'What! the old woman Drumshoddy's nephew?'
'The same.'
'All right; let us have him.'
So the Major came in due course. He was the beau-ideal of a cavalry
man--tall, handsome, well set up and put together, dark-complexioned
and regular-featured, with his ears and neck scorched by the Indian
sun to a hue in which red and bistre were blended; but an awkward
accession he proved to Shafto eventually.
The dinner, with its soup, fish, and many entrées, was all that could
be desired, from the curaçoa to the coffee, and put Shafto's two
guests in excellent humour with themselves and the world generally;
the cloth was drawn, the wine and dessert put on, and, seated at the
head of the table, Shafto almost forgot his troubles, as he took
bumper after bumper of sparkling Pommery-greno, while from the tall
windows could be seen the space of the stately square, with its tall
central column crowned by the colossal statue, of Melville, and all
its many-pillared and palatial banks and public offices whitened by
the silver light of the summer moon.
The Zulu War was, of course, spoken of, the mishaps at Isandhlwana
and Intombe discussed, though the subject was shirked by Shafto, who
cared nothing about it, save in so far as the _danger_ that then
menaced Florian; but little Kippilaw, who was a full-blown captain in
the Queen's Edinburgh Rifle Brigade, talked a vast amount of 'shop'
to the amused Major Garallan, whom he ventured to instruct in the
'new method of attack,' and thereby drew out the latter insensibly to
talk a little of his Indian experiences, for he had served in the
expedition to Perak, against the Malays, and the Jowaki expedition on
the frontier of Peshawur, and been wounded at the storming of Jummoo;
affairs that, though small in themselves, went rather beyond a sham
fight in the Queen's Park, including the storming of St. Anthony's
Chapel and forming a rallying square in the Hunter's Bog.
And now the conversation began to flag, though Shafto had circulated
the wine freely, and he thought the time had come to propose 'a
little mild play.' One circumstance surprised him--that though they
were supposed to be connected by marriage, the somewhat haughty Major
never made the slightest reference to the subject.
'A quiet rubber of whist, with a dummy,' suggested Kippilaw.
'With a dummy, no,' said Major Garallan. 'I like poker, but----'
'Poker be hanged!' interrupted Shafto.
At this abrupt speech the Major, a well-bred man, pushed back his
chair a little way, while Shafto paused and felt in his
waistcoat-pocket a little white square ivory object--of which more
anon.
It was arranged that Shafto and Kippilaw should have a mild game of
_écarté_, while Major Garallan smoked, idled, and looked on, a course
that the first-named gentleman by no means approved of, as, for
cogent reasons, he had an intense dislike of having his play
overlooked.
Kippilaw, inflamed by the wine he had taken inconsiderately--while
Shafto, cautious to a degree, had not, to use a phrase of his own, 'a
hair of his coat turned'--allowed himself to be lured into doubling
the stakes again and again; and Shafto, who had his own ultimate end
in view, while playing to all appearance with intense care, allowed
himself to lose eventually the sum of £500, for which, as he had not
the most remote intention of paying it, he with great liberality gave
an 'IOU' to Kippilaw, who, not being an habitual gamester, but by
nature and profession cautious and gentlemanly in spirit, was rather
scared in accepting the document.
Then a pause ensued in the game, during which more
wine--Pommery-greno--was circulated, fresh cards produced, and Shafto
invited the Major to play, but he declined somewhat curtly, as Shafto
thought.
He then urged Kippilaw to let him have his 'revenge,' and the latter
was willing enough to let him have back the IOU if he won it, or any
portion thereof, as he disliked to possess such a document signed by
the son of a client of the firm, and thought secretly that he would
not play a shilling beyond that sum; but he had partaken of too much
champagne, which, when the Major's back was turned, Shafto contrived
to dash with brandy, and soon the demon of play, rivalry and
acquisitiveness overruled the reason of Kippilaw; but the nefarious
action of Shafto had not been unnoticed by the Major, who had
affected to be twirling his moustache by the aid of a mirror above
the high black marble mantelpiece.
Shafto produced a dice-box; he lost, and Kippilaw won, as it was
intended he should, and a silly laugh of exultation escaped him.
'Another IOU--you're in luck's way to-night, Kippilaw!' exclaimed
Shafto.
'How much have I won?'
'A hundred and fifty.'
The play went on--the dice-box rattled again and again, while the
Major, with his back against the mantelpiece, looked silently and
curiously, but darkly on. Shafto won back--what he had lost as a
lure--his £500, with wonderful celerity, and then another sum of
£100, for which Kippilaw gave him a cheque, signed by a very unsteady
hand.
'Double or quits,' said Shafto, staking the cheque, with his hand on
the dice-box.
'Thanks--but I don't think I'll play any more,' said Kippilaw.
'Oh--indeed--please yourself,' said Shafto scornfully, while biting
his lips with anger and disappointment--'but after gaining £500 from
me--the devil--are you afraid?'
'No.'
'What then?'
'I have played enough--more deeply than I ever did before.'
'Enough!' repeated Shafto contemptuously.
'Yes.'
'Too much, indeed,' said Major Garallan suddenly; 'and, by Jove, you
do right to stop, Kippilaw.'
'What the devil do you mean?' asked Shafto, becoming pale with sheer
fury.
'What I say,' replied the officer coolly.
'Who the ---- gave you a right to interfere?' demanded Shafto in a
bullying tone.
'I have watched your play, sir, for some time past,' replied the
Major quietly, 'and know right well how and why the tide of fortune
turned so suddenly in your favour.'
An oath escaped Shafto, and snatching up the cards, he hurled the
pack to a remote corner of the room.
'What does all this mean?' asked Kippilaw, staring half tipsily and
with a scared air at the speakers.
'It means, you goose, that you have been playing with a fellow who is
no better than a blackleg,' said the Major, with quiet scorn. 'No,
_you don't_,' he added, grasping, as if with a smith's vice, the
wrist of Shafto, who, uttering a cry like a jackal, seized a
cut-glass decanter, with the fell intention of hurling it at the
speaker's head, but the latter cowed him by one steady glance.
'You shall repent this insolence,' said Shafto, starting to his feet.
'I will teach you to question a man of honour with impunity.'
'Honour!' laughed Garallan.
'You shall hear from me, sir.'
'In what fashion--an action at law?'
'No; one perhaps you may shrink from.'
'Very probably. You don't mean a duel?'
'I do.'
'Where?'
'On the sands at Boulogne.'
'Fool! People don't fight duels nowadays, and if they did, I am not
required to fight with a--swindler! That is the word, so let us hear
no more high falutin. A man of honour, indeed!'
Garallan burst into a fit of scornful laughter, and Shafto, mad with
rage and disappointment, was rushing to grasp the poker, when the
former, in a moment, and before the apparently helpless Kippilaw
could interfere, if able to do so, in any way, had struck his
would-be opponent down, and wrenched from his left hand, which he
tore open by main force, something that Shafto had attempted to put
in his mouth, and which, on examination, proved to be--a loaded die.