d to count the sovereigns and chips--there was L28 in all. "Will
you call to me? Very well. What do you say this is?"--spinning a
sovereign.

"I say it's a head," Lionel replied.

"You've made a mistake, then--very sorry," said the other, as he raked
in his own money.

"I owe you twenty-eight pounds, Johnny," Lionel said, without more ado;
and he took out his note-book and jotted it down. Then they went on
again.

Now the game of poker is played in calm; happy is he who can preserve a
perfectly expressionless face through all its vicissitudes. But the game
of whiskey-poker (which is no game) is played amid vacuous excitement
and strong language and derisive laughter--especially towards four in
the morning. The whole of this little party seemed ready to go; in fact,
they had all risen and were standing round the table; but nevertheless
they remained, while successive hands were dealt, face upwards. At first
only a sovereign each was staked, then two, then three, then four, then
five--and there a line was drawn. But in staking five sovereigns every
time, with four to one against you, a considerable amount of money can
be lost; and Lionel had been in ill-luck all the sitting. He did not,
however, seem to mind his losses, so long as the fierce spirit of
gambling could be kept up; and it was with no desperate effort at
recovering his money that he was always for increasing the stakes. He
would have sat down at the table and gone on indefinitely with this
frantic plunging, but that his companions declared they must go
directly; at last three of them solemnly swore they would have only one
round more. There were then left in only Lionel and the young fellow who
had won his L28 early in the evening.

"Johnny, I'll go you once for twenty pounds," Lionel said.

"Done with you."

"I say, you fellows," protested one of the bystanders, "you'll smash up
this club--you'll have the police shutting it up as a gambling-hell.
Besides, you're breaking the rules; you'll have the committee expelling
you."

"What rules?" Lionel's opponent asked, wheeling round.

"The amount of the stakes, for one thing; and playing after three
o'clock, for another," was the answer.

"I'll bet you ten pounds there's no limit as to time in the rules of
this club--I mean as regards card-playing," the young man said, boldly.

"I take you."

The bell was rung; a waiter was sent to fetch a List of Members; and
then he who had accepted the bet read o