"I came in here," I said, "to my own house and find my two best friends,
that I thought, waiting for me. A few hours ago I should have thought
such a scene as this utterly impossible. I will ask you both to remember
that it has not been provoked by me in any way, and that directly I came
in you turned on me in the most atrocious and ill-bred way. Of your idea
of the value of friendship I say nothing at all--it is obvious I must
say nothing about that. Now you have forced the pace I will say this. To
marry that young lady--I don't like to speak her name even--is about as
difficult as to dive in a cork jacket or keep a smelt in a net. But I
mean to try. I mean to use every ounce of weight I've got. I shall
almost certainly fail, but now you know."
"Since you have said that," Pat broke in, "handicaps be damned! I'm a
starter for the same stakes, and it's hell for leather I'll ride, and
it's meself that says it, Tom."
Arthur Winstanley spoke last.
"I'm a fellow of a good many ambitions," he said quietly, "though I've
never bothered you chaps with them. Now they are all consolidated into
one."
Then we all stood and looked at each other, the cards on the table, and
in the faces of the other two at least there was uneasiness and shame.
Just at that moment a funny thing happened. Preston had brought in an
ice pail full of bottles of soda water. The heat of the night, or
something, caused one of the corks to break its confining wire and go
off with a startling report, while a fountain of foam drenched the
sandwiches.
"Me kingdom for a drink!" said Pat. "Oh, the sweet, blessed, gurgling
sound!" and striding to the table he mixed a gargantuan peg.
Arthur and I met behind Pat's back and he held out his hand to me,
biting his lower lip.
"We've behaved abominably, old soul," he said.
The big guardsman turned round and raised his glass on high.
"Here's to the sweetest and most lovely lady in the world, bedad!" he
shouted, accentuating his Irish brogue. "May the best man win her, fair
fight, and no favors, and may the Queen of Heaven and all the saints
watch over the little darlint and guide her choice aright!"
So all our midnight madness passed like a fleeting cloud. An
extraordinary accession of high spirits came to us as we pledged the
dark-haired maiden from Brazil. And it was Pat, dear old Pat, who welded
us together in a league of chivalry against which nothing was ever to
prevail.
"Tom," he said, "Arthur--we are all like brothers, we always have been.
Let there be no change in that, now or ever. I have something to
propose."
"Go on, Pat," said Arthur.
"Sure then, since we all love the same lady, that ought to bind us more
together than anything else has ever done. But since we cannot all marry
her, let us agree, in the first place, that no outsider ever shall."
"Hurrah!" said Arthur--I could see that he was fearfully
excited--throwing his glass into the fireplace with a crash.
"I am with you, Pat!" I cried. "It's to be one of us three, and we are
in league against all the other men in London. And now the question
is--"
"Hear my plan. This very night we'll draw lots as to which of us shall
have the first chance. The man who wins shall have the entire support of
the other two in every possible way. If she accepts him, then the fates
have spoken. If she doesn't, then the next man in the draw shall have
his chance, and the rejected suitor and the poor third man shall help
_him_ to the utmost of their ability. Is that clear?"
He stopped and looked down at us from his great height with a smiling
and anxious face.
Dear old Pat, I shall always love to think that the proposal came from
him, straight, clean and true, as he always was.
"So be it," Arthur echoed solemnly. "The league shall begin this very
night. Do either of you chaps know any Spanish, by the way?"
We shook our heads.
"Well, I do," he continued, "and we'll form ourselves into a Santa
Hermandad--'The Holy Brotherhood'--it was the name of an old Spanish
Society of chivalry ever so many years ago."
"Santa Hermandad!" Pat shouted, "and now to shake hands on it. I think
we'll not be needing to take an oath."
Our three hands were clasped together in an instant and we knew that,
come what might, each would be true to that bond.
"And now," I said, "to draw lots as to who shall be the first to try his
chance. How shall we settle it?"
"There's no fairer way," said Arthur, "than the throw of a die. Have you
any poker dice, Tom?"
"Yes, I have a couple of sets somewhere."
"Very well then, we'll take a single one and the first man that throws
Queen is the winner."
I found the dice and the leather cup and dropped a single one into it.
Poker dice, for the benefit of the uninitiate, have the Queen on one
side in blue, like the Queen in a pack of cards, the King in red and the
Knave in black. On two other faces, the nine and the ten.
"Who will throw first?" said Pat.
"You throw," I said.
There was a rattle, and nine fell upon the table. I nodded to Arthur,
who picked up the little ivory square, waved the cup in the air, and
threw--an ace.
My turn came. I threw an ace also, and Arthur and I looked at Pat with
sinking hearts.
He threw a King. I don't want another five minutes like that again. We
threw and threw and threw and never once did the Queen turn up. At last
Arthur said:
"Look here, you fellows, I can't stand this much longer, it's playing
the devil with my nerves. Let's have one more throw and if Her Majesty
doesn't turn up, let's decide it by values. Ace, highest, King, Queen
and so on. Tom, your turn."
I took up the box, rattled the cube within it for a long time and then
dropped it flat upon the table.