avily last night."

"Thank you; they are the less likely to be loaded. You may retire
for a while. My friends," the Doctor continued, as soon as they were
alone, "Aristotle invented Chance to account for the astonishing fact
that there were certain things in the world which he could not
explain. I appeal to it for as cogent a reason. Indeed, had
Mistress Margaret--whose soul God has this night resumed--had she, I
say, been spared to receive and ponder the two letters which I saw
you deliver at her door; and had she invited me, as a tried friend,
to decide between them, I feel sure I should have ended by putting a
dice-box into her hands. Do not blush. No true man need blush that
he has loved such a woman: and you are both true men, if a trifle
obstinate--_justi et tenaces propositi_. Men of your character,
Flaccus tells us, do not blench at the thunderbolts of Jove himself;
and truly, I can well imagine his missile fizzing harmlessly into
your party hedge, unable to decide between the pavilion of Captain
John and the pavilion of Captain Jeremy. But Chance, being witless,
discriminates without trouble; and because she is blind, her
arbitraments offend nobody's sensibility. Do you consent?"

The two captains looked at the dice-box and nodded.

"The conditions?"

"One throw," said Captain Runacles.

"And the highest cast to win," added Captain Barker.

"You, Captain Barker, are the senior by a year, I believe. Will you
throw first?"

The little man caught up the box, rattled the dice briskly, and
threw--four and three.

Captain Runacles picked them up, and made his cast deliberately--six
and ace.

"Gentlemen, you must throw again. Fortune herself seems to hesitate
between you."

Captain Barker threw again, and leant back with a sob of triumph.

"Two sixes, upon my soul!" murmured the Doctor.

"I'm afraid, Captain Jeremy--" Captain Jeremy took the dice up,
turned them between finger and thumb, and dropped them slowly into
the box. As he lifted his hand to make the cast he looked up and saw
the gleam in his friend's greenish eyes.

The next moment box and dice flew past the hunchback's head and out
at the open window.

"That's my throw," Captain Runacles announced, standing up and
turning his back on the pair as he staggered across the room for his
hat. But the little man also had bounced up in a fury.

"That's a vile trick! I make the best throw, and you force me to
fight."

"Ah," said t