old 'un, keep your hands off me! I ain't a safe man to hit let me tell you. Now sit down and cool off! I don't want any more of your tantrums.”
Then there was a long silence between the two men. Monty sat where Trent had been earlier in the night at the front of the open hut, his eyes fixed upon the ever-rising moon, his face devoid of intelligence, his eyes dim. The fire of the last few minutes had speedily burnt out. His half-soddened brain refused to answer to the sudden spasm of memory which had awakened a spark of the former man. If he had thoughts at all, they hung around that brandy bottle. The calm beauty of the African night could weave no spell upon him. A few feet behind, Trent, by the light of the moon, was practising tricks with a pack of greasy cards. By and by a spark of intelligence found its way into Monty's brain. He turned round furtively.
“Trent,” he said, “this is slow! Let us have a friendly game—you and I.”
Trent yawned.
“Come on, then,” he said. “Single Poker or Euchre, eh?”
“I do not mind,” Monty replied affably. “Just which you prefer.”
“Single Poker, then,” Trent said.
“And the stakes?”
“We've nothing left to play for,” Trent answered gloomily, “except cartridges.”
Monty made a wry face. “Poker for love, my dear Trent,” he said, “between you and me, would lack all the charm of excitement. It would be, in fact, monotonous! Let us exercise our ingenuity. There must be something still of value in our possession.”
He relapsed into an affectation of thoughtfulness. Trent watched him curiously. He knew quite well that his partner was dissembling, but he scarcely saw to what end. Monty's eyes, moving round the grass-bound hut, stopped at Trent's knapsack which hung from the central pole. He uttered a little exclamation.
“I have it,” he declared. “The very thing.”
“Well!”
“You are pleased to set an altogether fictitious value upon half bottle of brandy we have left,” he said. “Now I tell you what I will do. In a few months we shall both be rich men. I will play you for my I O U, for fifty pounds, fifty sovereigns, Trent, against half the contents of that bottle. Come, that is a fair offer, is it not? How we shall laugh at this in a year or two! Fifty pounds against a tumblerful—positively there is no more—a tumblerful of brandy.”
He was watching Trent's face all the time, but the younger man gave no sign. When he had finished, Trent took up the cards, which he had shuffled for Poker, and dealt them out for Patience. Monty's eyes were dim with disappointment.
“What!” he cried. “You don't agree! Did you understand me? Fifty pounds, Trent! Why, you must be mad!”
“Oh, shut up!” Trent growled. “I don't want your money, and the brandy's poison to you! Go to sleep!”
Monty crept a little nearer to his partner and laid his hand upon his arm. His shirt fell open, showing the cords of his throat swollen and twitching. His voice was half a sob.
“Trent, you are a young man—not old like me. You don't understand my constitution. Brandy is a necessity to me! I've lived on it so long that I shall die if you keep it from me. Remember, it's a whole day since I tasted a drop! Now I'll make it a hundred. What do you say to that? One hundred!”
Trent paused in his game, and looked steadfastly into the eager face thrust close to his. Then he shrugged his shoulders and gathered up the cards.
“You're the silliest fool I ever knew,” he said bluntly, “but I suppose you'll worry me into a fever if you don't have your own way.”
“You agree?” Monty shrieked. Trent nodded and dealt the cards.
“It must be a show after the draw,” he said. “We can't bet, for we've nothing to raise the stakes with!”
Monty was breathing hard and his fingers trembled, as though the ague of the swamps was already upon him. He took up his cards one by one, and as he snatched up the last he groaned. Not a pair!
“Four cards,” he whispered hoarsely. Trent dealt them out, looked at his own hand, and, keeping a pair of queens, took three more cards. He failed to improve, and threw them upon the floor. With frantic eagerness Monty grovelled down to see them—then with a shriek of triumph he threw down a pair of aces.
“Mine!” he said. “I kept an ace and drew another. Give me the brandy!”
Trent rose up, measured the contents of the bottle with his forefinger, and poured out half the contents into a horn mug. Monty stood trembling by.
“Mind,” Trent said, “you are a fool to drink it and I am a fool to let you! You risk your life and mine. Sam has been up and swears we must clear out to-morrow. What sort of form do you think you'll be in to walk sixty miles through the swamps and bush, with perhaps a score of these devils at our heels? Come now, old 'un, be reasonable.”
The veins on the old man's forehead stood out like whipcord.
“I won it,” he cried. “Give it me! Give it me, I say.”
Trent made no further protest. He walked back to where he had been lying and recommenced his Patience. Monty drank off the contents of the tumbler in two long, delicious gulps! Then he flung the horn upon the floor and laughed aloud.
“That's better,” he cried, “that's better! What an ass you are, Trent! To imagine that a drain like that would have any effect at all, save to put life into a man! Bah! what do you know about it?”
Trent did not raise his head. He went on with his solitary game and, to all appearance, paid no heed to his companion's words. Monty was not in the humour to be ignored. He flung himself on the ground opposite to his companion.
“What a slow-blooded sort of creature you are, Trent!” he said. “Don't you ever drink, don't you ever take life a little more gaily?”
“Not when I am carrying my life in my hands,” Trent answered grimly. “I get drunk sometimes—when there's nothing on and the blues come—never at a time like this though.”
“It is pleasant to hear,” the old man remarked, stretching out his limbs, “that you do occasionally relax. In your present frame of mind—you will not be offended I trust—you are just a little heavy as a companion. Never mind. In a year's time I will be teaching you how to dine—to drink champagne, to—by the way, Trent, have you ever tasted champagne?”
“Never,” Trent answered gruffly “Don't know that I want to either.”
Monty was compassionate. “My young friend,” he said, “I would give my soul to have our future before us, to have your youth and never to have tasted champagne. Phew! the memory of it is delicious!”
“Why don't you go to bed?” Trent said. “You'll need all your strength to-morrow!”
Monty waved his hand with serene contempt.
“I am a man of humours, my dear friend,” he said, “and to-night my humour is to talk and to be merry. What is it the philosophers tell us?—that the sweetest joys of life are the joys of anticipation. Here we are, then, on the eve of our triumph—let us talk, plan, be happy. Bah! how thirsty it makes one! Come, Trent, what stake will you have me set up against that other tumblerful of brandy.”
“No stake that you can offer,” Trent answered shortly. “That drop of brandy may stand between us and death. Pluck up your courage, man, and forget for a bit that there is such a thing as drink.”
Monty frowned and looked stealthily across towards the bottle.
“That's all very well, my friend,” he said, “but kindly remember that you are young, and well, and strong. I am old, and an invalid. I need support. Don't be hard on me, Trent. Say fifty again.
“No,