"All right, I'm agreeable! But what the mischief else is there to do in this dull hole?" asked Cecil discontentedly. "Oh, let's have a chat and a few more glasses of wine!" suggested Mr. Fothergill. "I'm so lucky that I hate to play at cards. I always win." "Do you?" remarked Cecil, a little pettishly. "Well, look here, Fothergill! I'll play you at any game you like to-night and beat you--so there! I challenge you! You owe me a revenge. I want it!" Mr. Fothergill looked a little bored. "Of course, if you put it in that way," he said, "you leave me no alternative. But, mind, I warn you beforehand, Silchester, I'm bound to win! I don't want to win your money--I had enough last time I was here--but if we play I shall win, whether I care about it or not. I'm in a tremendous vein of luck just now." "We'll see about that," Cecil answered doggedly. "Let's ring for some cards." "Or, rather, don't let's play here at all," interrupted de Cartienne. "The people are awfully old-fashioned and particular and may want to turn as out at eleven o'clock." "By George! we'll go round to the 'Rose and Crown!'" exclaimed Cecil. "I haven't been there for two days. It's a decent little place and we can do what we like there," he added, turning to Mr. Fothergill. "You don't mind, do you?" "Not the least in the world!" declared our host, rising and stretching himself. "Any place will do for me. The sooner the better, if we are going, though. I don't want to be particularly late." We all rose, despatched the waiter for our overcoats and sallied out into the cool night air. After the heated atmosphere of the room in which we had been dining, the wintry breeze came as a sudden swift tonic. At the corner of the street, looking seaward, Cecil and I stopped simultaneously and bared our heads. "By George! how delicious a walk would be!" he exclaimed, fanning himself with his cap. "I say, Phil, old chap, suppose we bolt and do the seashore as far as Litton Bay?" "A splendid idea!" I exclaimed, taking him at his word and linking his arm in mine. "Let's do it!" He burst out laughing. "Why, Phil, you know we can't!" he said. "I was only joking. Why, what on earth would Fothergill think of us serving him such a trick as that?" "Oh, hang Fothergill!" I cried. "He only wants to win your money. I wouldn't play with the fellow if I were you, Cecil. Can't you see he's a cad?" He looked at me, confounded. "Why, hang it all," he said, "how can you refuse to play with a man after you've eaten his dinner? Besides, can't you see that it isn't he who wants to play at all? It was I who proposed it and even then he wasn't keen." "All beastly cunning!" I muttered angrily. But I could say no more, for de Cartienne and Mr. Fothergill had retraced their steps to look for us and Cecil had started off towards them.