"Yes," said Tamara faintly.

"You know, dear, our boys are often very wild, and they have a game
they play when they are at the end of their tether for something to do
when quartered in some hopeless outpost--a kind of blind-man's-buff--
only it is all in the dark, and the blind man stands in the middle of
the room and the rest clap hands and then dodge, and he fires his
revolver at the point the sound seems to come from, and the object is
not to get shot. You may have noticed Sasha Basmanoff has no left
thumb? He lost it last year on just such a night."

"Oh! Marraine, how dreadful!" Tamara said.

"It is perhaps not a very civilized game," the Princess continued, "but
we are not discussing that, I am telling you what occurred. Well, from
this point Valonne and the rest were eyewitnesses. Gritzko and Boris,
still laughing in rather a strained way, said they had some slight
difference of opinion to settle, and had decided to do it in the
ballroom, in the dark. I won't go into details of how many steps to the
right or left, the impromptu seconds arranged, only it was settled when
Sasha at one end and Serge at the other should shut the doors they
should both fire, and if in three times neither was shot, both should
give up their claim."