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"I do not think it safe to leave them here." "You, of course," said Anscombe, while Heda nodded. So with a groan I consigned all these valuables to my capacious pockets. Then I locked up the empty safe, replaced the keys where I had found them on Marnham, fastened the shutter and left the room with Anscombe, waiting for a while outside till Heda joined us, sobbing a little.
Shall we stop?" "By Heaven! no," shouted Marnham, to which Anscombe replied that if it was wished, he would play another hand, but no more. "All right," said Marnham, "but let it be for double or quits." He spoke quite quietly and seemed suddenly to have grown sober. Now I think that Rodd made up his mind that he really was acting and that he really had that card up his sleeve.
I fired at the pistol in your hand, but if there is more trouble next time it shall be at the holder," and I glanced at my revolver. Seeing that I meant business he made no reply, but turned upon Marnham who had followed me. "This is your work, you old villain," he said in a low voice that was heavy with hate. "You promised your daughter to me.
Marnham, as you see, drinks, and when drunk is the biggest liar in the world, and I, I am sorry to say, am cursed with a violent temper. Don't judge either of us too harshly. If you were a doctor you would know that all these things come to us with our blood, and we didn't fashion our own clay, did we? Have some coffee, won't you?"
Also one of the native boys brought a tray with spirits, from which I judged by various signs, old Marnham, who had already drunk his share at dinner, had helped himself freely on the way. Soon we were arranged, Anscombe, who was to be my partner, opposite to me in his long chair, and the game began.
This I picked up and slipped into my pocket. Rodd arrived half dressed. "What's the matter now?" he growled. I pointed to Marnham, saying "That is a question for you to answer. "Oh! drunk again, I suppose," he said. Then he did as I had done, bent down and examined him. A few seconds later he stepped or reeled back, looking as frightened as a man could be, and exclaiming "Dead as a stone, by God!
Subsequently when Rodd wasn't there, Marnham spoke also and with that fine air of courtesy which was peculiar to him. "I owe a deep apology," he said, "to yourself and Mr. Anscombe. I do not recall much about it, but I know there was a scene last night over those cursed cards. A weakness overtakes me sometimes.
As we passed over the edge of the slope in the gathering gloom, Heda cried "Look!" and pointed in the direction whence we came. Far away a sheet of flame shot upwards. "The house is burning," she exclaimed. "Yes," I said, "it can be nothing else;" adding to myself, "a good job too, for now there will be no postmortem on old Marnham." Who fired the place I never learnt.
"Is anything wrong with my father?" she asked. "I don't see him." "If you mean Mr. Marnham," I replied, lifting my hat, "I believe that Dr. Rodd and he " "Never mind about Dr. Rodd," she broke in with a contemptuous little jerk of her chin, "how is my father?" "I imagine much as usual. He and Dr. "Then that's all right," she said with a sigh of relief.
I am not sure, because I make it a rule never to pry into people's private affairs. All I know about her is that she was a beauty whom Marnham married late in life upon the Continent when she was but eighteen. As is common in such cases he was very jealous of her, but it didn't last long, as she died, or I understand that she died, within a year of her daughter's birth.
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