possible diplomacy at this juncture. So I demurred just enough to draw
him on. Falk sat up, but except for a very noticeable enlargement of the
pupils, till the irises of his eyes were reduced to two narrow yellow
rings, his face, I should judge, was incapable of expressing excitement.
"Oh, yes! Hermann did have the greatest . . ."

"Take up your cards. Here's Schomberg peeping at us through the blind!"
I said.

We went through the motions of what might have been a game of e'carte'.
Presently the intolerable scandalmonger withdrew, probably to inform the
people in the billiard-room that we two were gambling on the verandah
like mad.

We were not gambling, but it was a game; a game in which I felt I held
the winning cards. The stake, roughly speaking, was the success of the
voyage--for me; and he, I apprehended, had nothing to lose. Our intimacy
matured rapidly, and before many words had been exchanged I perceived
that the excellent Hermann had been making use of me. That simple and
astute Teuton had been, it seems, holding me up to Falk in the light of
a rival. I was young enough to be shocked at so much duplicity. "Did he
tell you that in so many words?" I asked with indignation.

Hermann had not. He had given hints only; and of course it had not taken
very much to alarm Falk; but, instead of declaring himself, he had taken
steps to remove the family from under my influence. He was perfectly
straightforward about it--as straightforward as a tile falling on your
head. There was no duplicity in that man; and when I congratulated
him on the perfection of his arrangements--even to the bribing of the
wretched Johnson against me--he had a genuine movement of protest. Never