Page:Guy Boothby--A Bid for Fortune.djvu/57

Rh only too glad to have come out of the ordeal with a whole skin, seized his hat and, with a half-uttered apology, darted from the room.

For a moment or two his extraordinary opponent sat playing with the chessmen. Then he looked up at me and without hesitation said, accompanying his remark with a curious smile for which I could not at all account:

"The limitations of the fool are the birth gifts of the wise!"

Not knowing what reply to make to this singular assertion, I wisely held my tongue. This brought about a change in his demeanour; he rose from his seat, and came across to where I sat. Seating himself in a chair directly opposite me, he folded his hands in his lap, after the manner of a demure old spinster, and, having looked at me earnestly, said with an almost incomprehensible sweetness of tone:

"I think you will agree with me, Mr. Hatteras, that half the world is born for the other half to prey upon!"

Really he was a most extraordinary man. Now, how on earth did he know my name? I stumbled out some sort of reply, which evidently did not impress him very much, for he began again:

"Our friend who has just left us will most certainly be one of those preyed upon. I pity him because he will not find the smallest grain of pleasure in his life. You, on the other hand, will, unwittingly, be on the other side. Circumstances will arrange that for you. Some have, of course, no desire to prey; but necessity forces it on them. Yourself, for instance. Some only prey when they are quite sure there will be no manner of risk. Our German friend who played the previous