’But since you are here you will join the others . . .  One last word.  To beat inepts such as you is nothing.  There is a far greater thing.  My country has conquered.  You and your friends will be dragged at the chariot wheels of a triumph such as Rome never saw.  Does that penetrate your thick skull?  Germany has won, and in two days the whole round earth will be stricken dumb by her greatness.’

As I watched Blenkiron a grey shadow of hopelessness seemed to settle on his face.  His big body drooped in his chair, his eyes fell, and his left hand shuffled limply among his Patience cards.  I could not get my mind to work, but I puzzled miserably over his amazing blunders.  He had walked blindly into the pit his enemies had dug for him.  Peter must have failed to get my message to him, and he knew nothing of last night’s work or my mad journey to Italy.  We had all bungled, the whole wretched bunch of us, Peter and Blenkiron and myself . . .  I had a feeling at the back of my head that there was something in it all that I couldn’t understand, that the catastrophe could not be quite as simple as it seemed.  But I had no power to think, with the insolent figure of Ivery dominating the room . . .  Thank God I had a bullet waiting for him.  That was the one fixed point in the chaos of my mind.  For the first time in my life I was resolute on killing one particular man, and the purpose gave me a horrid comfort.

Suddenly Ivery’s voice rang out sharp.  ’Take your hand out of your pocket.  You fool, you are covered from three points in the walls.  A movement and my men will make a sieve of you.  Others before you have sat in that chair, and I am used to take precautions.  Quick.  Both hands on the table.’

There was no mistake about Blenkiron’s defeat.  He was done and out, and I was left with the only card.  He leaned wearily on his arms with the palms of his hands spread out.

‘I reckon you’ve gotten a strong hand, Graf,’ he said, and his voice was flat with despair.

‘I hold a royal flush,’ was the answer.

And then suddenly came a change.  Blenkiron raised his head, and his sleepy, ruminating eyes looked straight at Ivery.

‘I call you,’ he said.

I didn’t believe my ears.  Nor did Ivery.

‘The hour for bluff is past,’ he said.

‘Nevertheless I call you.’

At that moment I felt someone squeeze through the door behind me and take his place at my side.  The light was so dim that I saw only a short, square figure, but a familiar voice whispered in my ear.  ’It’s me—­Andra Amos.  Man, this is a great ploy.  I’m here to see the end o’t.’

No prisoner waiting on the finding of the jury, no commander expecting news of a great battle, ever hung in more desperate suspense than I did during the next seconds.  I had forgotten my fatigue; my back no longer needed support.  I kept my eyes glued to the crack in the screen and my ears drank in greedily every syllable.