For a
moment there was a dead silence; then two of the youngest men rose to
their feet. John went back to the table. Cards from every hand were
scattered there, and looking steadily at the men round it, John asked
with intense feeling,
"GENTLEMEN, _what will it profit you, if you gain the whole world and
lose your own souls; for what shall a man give in exchange for his
soul?_"
A dead silence followed these questions, but as John left the room with
his brother, he heard an angry querulous voice exclaim,
"Most outrageous! Most unusual! O croupier! croupier!"
Then he was at the door. He paid the promised pound, and as his cab was
waiting, he motioned to Harry to enter it. All the way to Charing Cross,
John preserved an indignant silence and Harry copied his attitude,
though the almost incessant beating of his doubled hands together showed
the intense passion which agitated him.
Half an hour's drive brought them to the privacy of their hotel rooms
and as quickly as they entered them, John turned on his brother like a
lion brought to bay.
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