"Where we're not likely to meet--for some little time--again."
"Oh, but I say! You can't--"
"Can't what, Colonel?"
"Can't drop--drop out of the running--damn it all, man! you can't--you
can't--let it be a walk-over for _me_--after all that's--"
"That's where you've made your mistake, Colonel, I guess. You thought
there was--was a--a race, so to speak--and that I was in it. Well, I
wasn't?"
"But what the deuce--?"
"I not only wasn't in it--but there was no race. There never was. It was
a walk-over for--for some one--from the start. Now I guess I'll say good
night."
He turned away abruptly, but, having taken a few steps, came back again.
"Look here! Let's have a cigarette."
Ashley fumbled for his case, opened it, and held it up. "I say, take two
or three."
As Ashley lifted the one he was smoking to serve as a light Davenant
noticed that the hand trembled, and steadied it in the grasp of his own.
"Thanks; and good night again," he said, briefly, as he strode finally
away into the darkness.