rol peculiar to the
gently-bred race of mankind--caused him to make frantic efforts to keep
himself and his nerves in check. He would--even at this moment of
complete ruin--have given the last shreds of his worldly possessions to
be able to steady the febrile movements of his hand.

The pack of cards was on the table, just as Endicott had put it down,
after dealing, with the exception of the queen of hearts in front of
Segrave and the lucky king of diamonds on which Lambert was still
mechanically gazing.

He was undoubtedly moved by the desire to hide the trembling of his
hands and the gathering tears in his eyes when he began idly to scatter
the pack upon the table, spreading out the cards, fingering them one by
one, setting his teeth the while lest that latent cry of misery should
force its way across his lips.

Suddenly he paused in this idle fingering of the cards. His eyes which
already were burning with hot tears, seemed to take on an almost savage
glitter. A hoarse cry escaped his parched lips.

"In the name of Heaven, Master Segrave, what ails you?" cried Endicott
with well-feigned concern.

Segrave's hand wandered mechanically to his own neck; he tugged at the
fastening of his lace collar, as if, in truth, he were choking.

"The king.... The king of diamonds," he murmured in a hollow voice. "Two
... two kings of diamonds...."

He laughed, a long, harsh laugh, the laugh of a maniac, or of a man
possessed, whilst one long thin finger pointed tremblingly to the card
still held by Richard Lambert, and then to its counterpart in the midst
of the scattered pack.

That laugh seemed to echo all round the room. Dames and cavaliers,
players and idlers, looked up to see whence that weird sound had come.
Instinctively the crowd drew nigh, dice and cards were pushed aside.
Some strange drama was being enacted between two young men, more
interesting even than the caprices of Fortune.

But already Endicott and also Sir Marmaduke de Chavasse had followed the
beckonings of Segrave's feverish hand.

There could be no mistake in what they saw nor yet in the ominous
consequences which it foretold. There was a king of diamonds in the
scattered pack of cards upon the table, and yet the card which Lambert
held, in consequence of which he had just won two hundred pounds, was
also the king of diamonds.

"Two kings of diamonds ... by all that's damnable!" quoth Lord
Walterton, who had been the first to draw nigh.

"But i