ight night the first thing that met his eye was Captain
Irwin, some twenty yards distant, standing by his horse. The servant
held the animal by the bridle, and Captain Irwin was about to mount. On
coming nearer he saw the servant move off and perceived that Irwin held
a revolver in his hand. With a quick motion he seized the officer's
wrist.

"One moment, Captain Irwin."

Irwin started, turned round, and looked with fury at Heideck.

"I beg your pardon," said the German, "but you are labouring under a
mistake, Captain. The game was all a jest; they were playing a trick
upon you. The cards were arranged beforehand."

Irwin made no reply, but whistled to his servant and went back into the
tent, revolver still in hand, without a single word to Heideck. Heideck
followed. Both gentlemen stepped up to the card-table, and Irwin turned
to McGregor.

"You tell me the game was all a got-up thing, do you?" he asked.

"As a lesson to you, Irwin--you who always plunge as a madman, and
imagine yourself a good player, when you have not the necessary cold
blood for gambling."

"Well," said Irwin, "that is a story that I will take care goes the
round of all the garrisons in India, as an instance of kind comrade-like
feeling, so that everyone may be warned against coming along here and
being induced to take a hand. I never in my life came across a more
despicable story; but it certainly is a lesson for me, that only
honourable persons should be--"

"No, Captain Irwin," said McGregor, standing bolt upright, levelling
at his insulter a withering look from his great blue eyes, "you should
rather think of your poor wife, whom you would have made a pauper if
this game had not been all a hoax."

Irwin reeled back; the revolver fell from his grasp.

"What," he gasped--"what do you mean? It was, then, no joke, after all.
I, then, really lost the money? Oh, you--you--But what do you take
me for? Be quite certain that I will pay. But," he cried, collecting
himself, "I should like to know what the real truth is, after all. I ask
this question of you all, and call you rogues and liars if you do not
tell me the truth. Have I only really been played with, or has the game
been a straightforward one?"

"Captain Irwin," replied the Major, advancing towards him, "I, as the
senior, tell you, in the name of our comrades, that your behaviour would
have been unpardonable unless a sort of madness had seized you. The
game was a straightforward one