"If I had posted Mr. Beaton, as I ought to have done, that would have brought him to his senses, and then Mr. Draycott wouldn't have been standing there, stuffed with the lies he's going to tell." Still Draycott continued to ignore the other's words; he went on with his story as if Dodwell was not persistently interrupting. "Dodwell said to me that if I would help him to get even with Beaton, he would say no more about the money which he made out I owed him, and as I was tired of his perpetual dunning, I was cad enough to listen." "You were a cad first, last, and altogether, Mr. Draycott." "Then that night we played poker, and Dodwell said that he had seen Beaton cheating; then he looked at me, and he winked; I knew what he meant, and I said that I had too--but I hadn't." There arose an outcry from those who heard him; all the men began speaking at once. Major Reith called them to order. "Gently, gentlemen, gently; let us know where we are standing." "You are standing," cried Anthony Dodwell, "in the presence of an infamous animal whom only the fact that Miss Forster is here, prevents me from characterising as he deserves. I don't wish to assert that he took care that the lady was here before he began what he calls his story; but when the lady has gone he will receive from me the treatment from which her presence saves him." "If you will take my advice," the excited gentleman was told by Major Reith, "you will let Draycott tell his story without comment or interruption; when he has finished you will be able, if you think it necessary, to tell yours; but you will not improve your case by doing your best to keep him from stating his. Draycott, do we understand you to say that you did not see Sydney Beaton cheat?" "I did not." "You did not see him exchange one card for another?" "I did not." "You did not see him do anything irregular, or indulge in malpractices of any kind?" "Absolutely no; nor do I believe that he did. I did not believe it then; I believe it still less now. I believe he played as straight a game as anyone else, and Dodwell knew it." Three or four men interposed to prevent Anthony Dodwell venting his wrath upon the speaker then and there. "I'll break every bone there is in your body," he declared, "before I've done with you, you libellous hound." Suffering his threat to go unheeded, Draycott looked him steadily in the face. Clifford, the biggest and most powerful man in the regiment, addressed himself to the infuriated Dodwell.