CHAPTER XL.

The game commenced. The women were, at first, completely absorbed in contemplating the Bengal lights, but by degrees their whole attention became concentrated on the cards and the players, it being difficult to say which excited the greater admiration. De Morin, though naturally interested in the game, could not keep his eyes from wandering over the strange figures around him, rendered still more strange by the novel manner in which they were lit up.

"You have arranged this scene admirably," said de Morin to Delange, as he shuffled the cards.

"Have I not? For that very reason you are bound to lose."

"I think I am. But why do you say, 'for that very reason?' Does your tableau count in the game?"

"Not in the game, but in your mode of playing it. The spectacle I have set before you distracts your attention, and you are sure to make a few mistakes, of which I shall take all due advantage."

"Indeed!" replied de Morin, laughing, "and you, I presume, are superior to all these distractions?"

"Quite so, for the simple reason that I had a rehearsal before you appeared, and, therefore, know exactly what to expect."

"All right. I must be on my guard, and you, I think, will find that you have exposed your hand too soon."

De Morin soon recovered his wonted coolness, and devoted himself to the game, but he had not reckoned on the intense natural curiosity of these ladies. Every moment saw them drawing nearer and nearer to the gamblers, pushing. Jostling, elbowing each other, and some of them went so far as to climb the tree-stems which supported the roof of the shed, and from those coigns of vantage surveyed the eccentric game.

At length a few of the women, emboldened by the impunity with which their first advances had been made, stretched out their hands and laid hold of the cards, and they were proceeding to pay a similar compliment, _more Africano_, to de Morin's beard and hair.

"Hands off, ladies, if you please," he exclaimed, but remonstrance would have been of but little avail, had not Delange just at that moment scored the requisite fifteen hundred points, thereby putting an end to the game.

"The next thing," said I, "is to get out, but how is it to be done? Look at these creatures, they could smother us if they wished. We are only three against their eighty, to say nothing of their being armed with stools."

"That is true," replied Delange, "but it so happens that the fireworks are not over, I have a bouquet in reserve."

So saying, this Doctor, by a vigorous push, cleared a small space in front of him, and, taking out of his pocket a Roman candle, he stuck it in the ground and lighted it.

At the noise and glare of this fresh wonder there was a hurried retreat, which resulted in one tumbling over the other in inextricable confusion, whilst those on the tree stems dropped to the ground like over-ripe fruit.

The way out was now clear, and we were rude enough to take advantage of that circumstance without waiting even to shake hands with the ladies. Nevertheless, they had nothing much to grumble at; a bad beginning of the day had, in their case, made an unexpectedly good ending, and instead of having been beheaded at sunset, as they had been led to expect, they had enjoyed the three-fold pleasure of witnessing the fireworks, seeing us, and learning bezique.