They were overwhelmed with horror and astonishment at seeing three
hazards taken in as many strokes, from a person of their friend's
dexterity; and shrewdly suspected, that the whole was a scheme
preconcerted for their destruction. On this supposition, they changed
the note, and attempted to hedge for their own indemnification,
by proposing to lay the odds in favour of Gauntlet; but so much
was the opinion of the company altered by that young gentleman's
success, that no one would venture to espouse the cause of his
competitor, who, chancing to improve his game by the addition of
another lucky hit, diminished the concern, and revived the hopes
of his adherents.
But this gleam of fortune did not long continue. Godfrey collected
his whole art and capacity, and, augmenting his score to number ten,
indulged himself with a view of the whole fraternity. The visages
of these professors had adopted different shades of complexion
at every hazard he had taken: from their natural colour they had
shifted into a sallow hue; from thence into pale; from pale into
yellow, which degenerated into a mahogany tint; and now they saw
seventeen hundred pounds of their stock depending upon a single
stroke, they stood like so many swarthy Moors, jaundiced with
terror and vexation.
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