"Naps! play!" exclaimed the sick man with a stare; "why, what do you mean? I am but in sorry mood for jesting. I do remember playing for and losing some gloves and garters to the ladies." "And let me tell you, I am in still less joking humor than yourself," returned the captain, in high dudgeon; "through your cursed obstinacy, I played against my better judgment--and was cleaned by Count F---- out of eighteen thousand francs. How shall I come to book? In the devil's name how can I face my creditor this evening at Madame's réunion? The three hundred naps I won from you will go but a short way to meet my losses. I think I shall go mad." "And I fancy that I am mad already," groaned the sufferer from the bed; "do end this folly, K----." "Did I not know you, I should fancy you intended me offense," replied the captain, rather angrily; "what, have you such a conveniency of memory as to forget that you lost three hundred naps to me, eight hundred to the count, and five-and-forty to Madame La C----?" Before the unhappy youth could find words to respond, the valet announced another visitor, and Count F---- was shown in. "Monsieur le Comte," pursued the gallant captain, "are you, too, in a jesting mood? My young friend here can not be persuaded that we had a little play last night. Excuse me paying but half my loss till evening; and, in the mean time, accept these _billets de banque_," and "Little Joe" handed the chevalier a roll of bank notes; "you will find there ten thousand francs." "Gentlemen," cried the astonished citizen, "I pray you end this farce. I know I am indebted to madame heavily in gloves and ribbons." "Why, fiends and furies!" exclaimed the captain, "do you pretend, sir, to assert, that you did not lose three hundred naps to me?" "Or that this acknowledgment for eight hundred was not given?" The youth, astounded as he was, took the paper. It purported to be an I.O.U., but the forgery was clumsy. "That is not my writing--nor do I owe either of you a _sou_." The scene that followed may be imagined. Instant payment, or a legal security for the alleged debts was demanded--or the alternative--a meeting in the Bois de Boulogne within two hours. Half bewildered, the young dupe assented to give the latter--and at the time appointed he alighted, without friend or weapon, at the place named for the duel, by these infamous men.