.

York (extending his hand). It's a square game, Jack!

Oakhurst (seizing his hand with repressed emotion). It's a square game,
Harry York, if I live.

York. Then I'll travel. Good-night, old boy. I'll send my clerk around
in the morning to put things right. Good-night (going).

Oakhurst (grasping YORK'S hand). One moment--no--nothing! Good-night.
[Exit YORK.

OAKHURST follows him to door, and then returns to desk, throwing himself
in chair, and burying his face in his hands.

Oakhurst (with deep feeling). It needed but this to fill the measure of
my degradation. I have borne the suspicions of the old man's enemies,
the half-pitying, half-contemptuous sympathy of his friends, even his
own cold, heartless, fanatical fulfilment of his sense of duty; but
THIS--this confidence from one who had most reason to scorn me, this
trust from one who knew me as I WAS,--this is the hardest burden. And
he, too, in time will know me to be an impostor. He too--a reformed man;
but he has honorably retraced his steps, and won the position I hold
by a trick, an imposture. And what is all my labor beside his honest
sincerity? I have fought against the chances that might discover my
deception, against the enemies who would overthrow me, against the
fate that put me here; and I have been successful--yes, a successful
impostor! I have even fought against the human instinct that told this
fierce, foolish old man that I was an alien to his house, to his blood;
I have even felt him scan my face eagerly for some reflection of his
long-lost boy, for some realization of his dream; and I have seen him
turn away, cold, heartsick, and despairing. What matters that I have
been to him devoted, untiring, submissive, ay, a better son to him than
his own weak flesh and blood would have been? He would to-morrow cast
me forth to welcome the outcast, Sandy Morton. Well, what matters?
(Recklessly.) Nothing. In six days it will be over; in six days the year
of my probation will have passed; in six days I will disclose to him the
deceit I have practised, and will face the world again as John Oakhurst,
the gambler, who staked and lost ALL on a single cast. And Jovita! Well,
well!--the game is made: it is too late to draw out now. (Rings bell.
Enter JACKSON.) Who has been here?

Jackson. Only Don Jose, and Mr. Capper, the detective.

Oakhurst. The detective? What for?

Jackson. To work up the robbery, sir.

Oakhurst. True! Capper, Capper, yes! A man of