Gentleman Jack's appeared to be a philosophical nature. The chagrin consequent upon his failure seemed to have left him. He sat on the arm of a chair and regarded Jimmy without apparent hostility. He even smiled a faint smile. "I thought I had fixed you, he said. You must have been smarter than I took you for. I never supposed you would get on to that drink and pass it up." Understanding of an incident which had perplexed him came to Jimmy. "Was it you who put that high-ball in my room? Was it doped?" "Didn't you know?" "Well," said Jimmy, "I never knew before that virtue got its reward so darned quick in this world. I rejected that high-ball not because I suspected it but out of pure goodness, because I had made up my mind that I was through with all that sort of thing." His companion laughed. If Jimmy had had a more intimate acquaintance with the resourceful individual whom the "boys" called Gentleman Jack, he would have been disquieted by that laugh. It was an axiom among those who knew him well, that when Gentleman Jack chuckled in the reflective way, he generally had something unpleasant up his sleeve. "It's your lucky night," said Gentleman Jack. "It looks like it." "Well, it isn't over yet." "Very nearly. You had better go and put that test-tube back in what is left of the safe now. Did you think I had forgotten it?" "What test-tube?" "Come, come, old friend! The one filled with Partridge's explosive, which you have in your breast-pocket." Gentleman Jack laughed again. Then he moved towards the safe. "Place it gently on the top shelf," said Jimmy. The next moment every nerve in his body was leaping and quivering. A great shout split the air. Gentleman Jack, apparently insane, was giving tongue at the top of his voice. "Help! Help! Help!" The conversation having been conducted up to this point in undertones, the effect of this unexpected uproar was like an explosion. The cries seemed to echo round the room and shake the very walls. For a moment Jimmy stood paralysed, staring feebly; then there was a sudden deafening increase in the din. Something living seemed to writhe and jump in his hand. He dropped it incontinently, and found himself gazing in a stupefied way at a round, smoking hole in the carpet. Such had been the effect of Gentleman Jack's unforeseen outburst that he had quite forgotten that he held the revolver, and he had been unfortunate enough at this juncture to pull the trigger. There was a sudden rush and a swirl of action. Something hit Jimmy under the chin. He staggered back, and when he had recovered himself found himself looking into the muzzle of the revolver which had nearly blown a hole in his foot a moment back. The sardonic face of Gentleman Jack smiled grimly over the barrel. "I told you the night wasn't over yet!" he said.