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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Chance in Chains, by Cyril Arthur Edward
+Ranger Gull, Illustrated by Howard T. Graves
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Chance in Chains
+       A Story of Monte Carlo
+
+
+Author: Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull
+
+
+
+Release Date: October 2, 2011  [eBook #37591]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHANCE IN CHAINS***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Mark C. Orton, Martin Pettit, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
+generously made available by Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustration.
+      See 37591-h.htm or 37591-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37591/37591-h/37591-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37591/37591-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/chanceinchainsst00gull
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: IN FRONT OF BASIL GREGORY WAS A PILE OF GOLD.]
+
+
+CHANCE IN CHAINS
+
+A Story of Monte Carlo
+
+by
+
+GUY THORNE
+
+Author of "When It Was Dark," "The Drunkard," etc.
+
+With Frontispiece from a Drawing by Howard T. Graves
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York
+Sturgis & Walton Company
+1914
+
+Copyright, 1914
+By Sturgis & Walton Company
+
+Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1914
+
+
+
+
+CHANCE IN CHAINS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+It was nine o'clock at night, and the thirty huge dynamos of the Societe
+Generale Electrique of Paris were nearly all at work. In the great
+glass-roofed hall of the Mont Parnasse Central Power Station
+blue-bloused workmen moved quietly over the shining floors of white
+concrete, pausing now and then by this or that purring, spitting
+monster, scrutinising the whirring, glittering copper drums, listening
+with experienced ears for the slightest variation in the deep wasp-like
+hum, touching a lever here, adjusting a screw there, or oiling a bearing
+with tin cans beaked like a snipe.
+
+Huge arc lamps hanging from the ceiling cast a steel-blue radiance over
+the hall, a radiance so cruel and intense that the shadows of the
+machinery which were thrown upon the floor were as black and sharply
+defined as fretwork of ebony.
+
+The incandescent lamps which showed above each of the three great
+switchboards of brass and vulcanite, although they were burning at full
+power, glowed orange in the stupendous light from above.
+
+The monster dynamos were making light for half eastern Paris. The Gare
+Mont Parnasse, from where trains were running every two minutes with
+late business folk to Meudon, Sevres and Versailles, was lit from this
+room. The dinner tables of the foreign Ambassadors on the Quai
+Austerlitz were illuminated by favour of these serene, relentless
+marvels, and, across the Seine, many a glittering cafe upon the heights
+of the pleasure city Montmartre were switching on hundreds of fresh
+lights in the expectation of their supper custom--even as a new dynamo
+was started to cope with the extra strain.
+
+At one side of the hall a few concrete steps led into the little
+glass-fronted room where the superintendent engineer on duty always sat.
+
+The room was some twelve feet square, walled with white tiles like a
+model dairy, and from where he sat at a deal table the engineer could
+look out into every part of the hall. In the hall itself it was cold,
+though the electricians felt but little of it owing to the fresh ozone
+constantly liberated from the dynamos into the air. Outside, in Paris,
+it was bitterly cold--a damp and foggy cold of late November. But in the
+room of the superintendent engineer an electric stove burned brightly
+and warmed it.
+
+Two people were in the room now, Emile Deschamps and Basil Gregory, both
+of them employed by the Societe Generale.
+
+Deschamps was a young man of about twenty-six. His jet black hair,
+closely cropped to a rather large and well-shaped head, together with
+the swarthy tint of his complexion, proclaimed him of the South, a
+veritable son of the Midi from Orange, Avignon, or Marseilles. He wore a
+small black moustache, and his long-fingered right hand was deeply
+stained with the juice of cheap cigarettes.
+
+The man who sat opposite to him, at the other end of the table, was
+unmistakably English. He was smoking a briar pipe, and though his
+clothes--neither new nor fashionably cut--were distinctly Parisian, his
+fair hair, blue eyes and rather heavy yellow moustache were eloquent of
+his nationality. He was bending over a large sheet of drawings on
+tracing paper with strained and careful attention.
+
+He looked up suddenly, removed the pipe from his mouth, and began
+speaking in a torrent of French so perfect that he might very well have
+passed for a Parisian.
+
+"Emile, I think I have it at last. The position of neutrality varies
+with the type of the machine owing to the fact of armature reaction,
+which distorts the magnetic field. We must therefore connect the
+commutating poles in series with the armature, when their windings will
+carry the full armature current."
+
+Deschamps nodded, thought for a moment, and a quick technical discussion
+began between the two men, the sheet of drawings being pushed from one
+to the other, marked and annotated in the margin with pencil.
+
+Suddenly Deschamps leant back in his chair.
+
+"Yes," he said, "there can be no doubt about it. We're on the track, if
+we have not already discovered the most revolutionary theory in
+wireless telegraphy that the world has known as yet! What we know now,
+at nine o'clock on a November evening in a power station in Paris, might
+alter the whole course of life and society all over the world."
+
+The Englishman nodded, with less excited but perfectly sincere
+agreement.
+
+"Very well, then," cried Deschamps, "will the world ever benefit by our
+three years' work, our marvellous discovery? No! We're two poor devils,
+junior engineers of this company on two hundred and fifty francs a
+month. In all France no one will listen to us, and in all England also,
+as you have discovered. And why?"
+
+"Oh, what is the use, Emile?" Gregory replied, cutting short his friend.
+"We have talked it over too many times. It's no good making a song about
+it. We have not got the money to carry out our experiments thoroughly
+and to construct our models, twenty thousand pounds--five hundred
+thousand francs, my friend! And as we shall never get that, no one will
+listen to us and it will remain for someone else to make our discovery
+when we're--either when we're dead or still nursing Thierry dynamos at a
+few francs a day."
+
+As he spoke he rolled up the sheet of drawings and, with a deep sigh,
+thrust it into the inner pocket of his coat.
+
+"Come along," he said; "we had better be getting home. It is more
+comfortable there than here, at any rate; and there's still one bottle
+of Macon."
+
+They left the little alcoved room, walked slowly down the hall, with a
+word or two to the foreman, and passed out into the office, where the
+engineer who was to succeed them and watch through the night was smoking
+with the timekeeper.
+
+Then, arm in arm, they passed into Paris.
+
+They were a strange couple, these two. Basil Gregory was the son of a
+Cambridge tutor, who early in his career had gone to Paris as the
+English master of a famous Lycee. He had married a Frenchwoman, who had
+died five years after Basil's birth. The boy had been brought up in
+Paris until he was old enough to go to one of the lesser public schools
+of England, which was all his father could afford for him. He won a
+science scholarship from his school to Cambridge, had worked hard and
+played hard at the University, until an unfortunate encounter with a
+proctor during one of the evenings of the "May Week" had caused him to
+be sent down for ever and a day. It was a stupid affair enough, but the
+hot-headed young man's treatment of the guardian of University morals
+had been too flagrant to be passed over.
+
+Basil had returned to Paris, spent six months as a pupil in the school
+for electrical engineers, and had finally been apprenticed to the
+Societe Generale. At the end of his apprenticeship his father had died,
+leaving him his blessing and a couple of hundred pounds. From that time
+to this, and he was now exactly the same age as his friend Deschamps,
+the young man had worked as a junior engineer at the central power
+station. His salary was ten pounds a month. There were innumerable
+people before him, and his prospects seemed absolutely nil.
+
+As for Deschamps, he was the son of a bankrupt wine merchant of
+Marseilles. With a remarkable taste for science and an especial interest
+in electricity, he had come to Paris--after an apprenticeship at the
+electrical station of Monte Carlo--and was in precisely the same state
+as Basil Gregory. The two young men had become friends at once. Each
+recognised in the other a brain above the average. Both of them were
+intensely interested in their work, both of them had the temper of mind
+which flouts accepted theories and ever presses forward to new and
+epoch-making discovery. They were pioneers, and knew it. Without
+conceit, without any self-deception, they were quietly certain of their
+own powers. They had worked together, spending every moment of their
+spare time and every franc they could afford upon a new and original
+development in wireless telegraphy. They had arrived at a point when
+they were both convinced that they had wrested an entirely new secret
+from Nature, and at this point they found, as so many inventors and
+pioneers have found in the past, that the way was absolutely barred for
+want of capital. In their hands they were sure they held the talisman of
+fortune and undying renown. It was useless to them for want of money.
+
+This night in Paris was bitter cold. Moreover, an infrequent and dreaded
+occurrence in Paris, a dense fog lay over the city. These Parisian fogs
+are not the sulphurous, pea-soup discomforts of London, but they are
+almost as unpleasant, and quite as upsetting to ordinary life and
+comfort. A dank, grey mist, opaque and wet, seems to rise from the
+Seine, spread outwards in evergrowing density and chill, until all the
+central quarter of Paris is hidden and throttled by it.
+
+"_Diable!_" Deschamps said, coughing, as they left the power station
+behind them. "_Une vraie brume Anglaise_."
+
+Gregory shrugged his shoulders. "It is pretty bad," he said, "and we
+can't see a yard in front of our noses. Still, if you had experienced a
+London 'particular,' Emile--well, then you _would_ know!"
+
+There was a silence between the young men as they tramped away to the
+Latin Quarter, where they shared a room in a little fifth-rate hotel not
+far from the Quai Voltaire. The night was bitterly cold, certainly not
+inviting conversation, and the thoughts of the pair were cold and bitter
+in harmony with the night. Genius is rarely unconscious of its power.
+Basil Gregory and Emile Deschamps were not in the least conceited, but
+each knew in his heart of hearts that already they approached those
+heights upon which Tesla and Edison dwelt. They saw the top of the
+mountain bathed in glorious sunshine, but between them and it there was
+a great gulf only to be bridged by money.
+
+Basil Gregory's case was, perhaps, the worse of the two, for Basil was
+in love. Ethel McMahon, the pretty Irish girl, who was English mistress
+in a young ladies' school in the Fauberg St. Honore, held all his heart,
+but she, like him, was poor and friendless, and out of her wretched
+salary supported an invalid mother, who was a martyr to one of the
+cruellest forms of arthritis.
+
+The young man ground his teeth in fury against Fate, as he strode by his
+companion's side. Suddenly he began to talk rapidly, and with a true
+Parisian vehemence.
+
+"I shouldn't mind so much, Emile, if we wanted money for the reason that
+such a lot of fellows of our age want it. But we don't. We don't want to
+play the giddy goat"--_faire la bete_ was the French he used--"we don't
+want to enjoy ourselves in the usual silly way. We only want the world
+to recognise us for what we are. We want to benefit the whole world,
+Emile, and for ourselves all we ask is recognition and sufficient to
+live in comfort."
+
+"It's true," Deschamps replied. "For myself, a flat in central Paris, a
+motor car to take me quickly to my experimental works, money to travel
+to America to see all the developments of electricity there--that is all
+I ask."
+
+"It's much the same with me," the other returned, "except that I want to
+get married as well and give poor dear Ethel a happy life, and her
+mother the comforts that she needs. And yet--oh, I'd give anything,
+_anything_, to get the money for our experiments."
+
+Deschamps shrugged his shoulders. "Well, we cannot rob a church," he
+said, "and the penalties for any sort of burglary are most unpleasant in
+France. We must even wait upon Fortune. After all, _mon ami_, our chance
+may yet come. Every day we read in the newspapers of strange strokes of
+fortune coming to people. I cannot believe that we shall never have our
+opportunity. Who knows!"--he threw out an arm with one of the theatrical
+gestures habitual to men of the South--"who knows but that this very
+night some very great thing will happen to us! Faith! faith! We must
+believe, and Fortune will be kind to us. She ever turns away coldly from
+a faint and despairing heart!"
+
+He took his fancy and embroidered it in a stream of words so vivid,
+hopeful and full of fancy that he half persuaded the more phlegmatic
+Englishman by his side. Basil listened in silence, warmed a little, and
+was not quite so hopeless as he had been. Then, out of mere shame at his
+own feeling, he stemmed the other's torrent of words.
+
+"That is all very well," he said grimly, "but meanwhile Dame Fortune
+seems to have deserted us worse than ever. While we have been talking
+nonsense we have missed our way, and if you can tell me where we are, or
+whereabouts the Hotel Buonaparte may be lying, I shall be extremely
+obliged to you, Monsieur Deschamps of the rosy hopes!"
+
+The two men stopped. It was as Gregory had said. That they were near the
+Seine was obvious, because of the intenser thickness of the fog, but
+there was no doubt that they had entirely lost their direction. The
+white mist was as thick as wool, wet, motionless, and icy. Where they
+stood, upon the pavement, and half-way down a mean, narrow street, the
+blurred contours of which were perfectly unfamiliar, hardly a sound
+could be heard. Wheel traffic there was none. The hum of fog-gripped
+Paris came to them as if from an incredible distance; there was not even
+a footstep to be heard.
+
+Once more Deschamps shrugged his shoulders. "_Bien_," he said; "yes, we
+have certainly 'done it this time,' as you say. I have no notion where
+we are. I am as cold as an iceberg and as hungry as a goat."
+
+They stood looking at each other, though the face of each was an
+indistinct, pale glimmer. They had gone a little too much to the west,
+and had lost themselves in the narrow network of mean streets somewhere
+behind the Ecole Militaire. To reach the Latin Quarter would need
+considerable ingenuity upon a clear evening when the lamps shone
+brightly. At the moment it seemed a sheer impossibility.
+
+"Shall we turn back?" Deschamps asked.
+
+Gregory shook his head. "No," he replied. "You pretend to be so intimate
+with the habits of Fortune, and yet you ask a question like that! Let us
+go on. We are bound to find our way somehow into some street where there
+is more life and movement. And if we meet a gang of Apaches--well, we
+are neither of us weaklings, and we have got a couple of good
+walking-sticks. Forward, Emile Deschamps! We go to seek our fortune!"
+And as he said it he laughed with bitter cynicism.
+
+They went on, but as they did so, and when they had walked a hundred and
+fifty yards or more, the street in which they were grew even narrower
+and more silent. Every now and then, at long distances, there was a gas
+lamp, but its yellow light was so muffled by the fog that it hardly
+penetrated for more than a yard or so, and if the prismatic colours the
+light made upon the mist were beautiful, they were quite useless to two
+young gentlemen hungry for supper and far from home.
+
+Emile Deschamps took a box of matches from his pocket, wax ones, which
+burned immediately without the spectral blue flame of the more general
+Government article. He lit one--there was not a breath of wind--and held
+it above his head. The two men walked onwards for a few yards while the
+feeble light lasted, carefully scrutinising the tall houses which
+abutted on the pavement. They seemed to consist of small workshops and
+factories, now blind and deserted. Another match brought them to a
+stretch of wide wood paling, beyond which rose dim objects seeming like
+giant mounds or pyramids, and even as the match flickered out it threw
+its light upon a painted sign.
+
+"Ah!" Deschamps said suddenly. "Now I know! We are in the wood quarter!
+This is a street of _chantiers de bois_."
+
+Basil groaned. "Good heavens!" he said, "then we _have_ come out of our
+way," for he knew instantly that they had penetrated to that part of
+Paris where the huge wood-sheds were, where the firewood is cut and
+stored, and timber for all other purposes is kept. All around them were
+the great wood stacks and deserted yards. There was not a sound to be
+heard, and doubtless the few watchmen that were on guard were
+comfortably sleeping over the stoves in their huts.
+
+"Go on, or turn back?" Deschamps said.
+
+Gregory took a franc from his pocket, and spun it under a gas lamp to
+which they had just come up. "Heads we go on," he said, and as the coin
+fell upon the back of his hand, sure enough the figure of Liberty was
+uppermost.
+
+"That settles it," he said, and once again the boots of the friends rang
+upon the pavement.
+
+They had travelled for some fifty yards or so, when a rather brighter
+light than usual came into their view.
+
+"By Jove!" Gregory said, "an electric light at last! I know current is
+supplied to this neighbourhood because there have recently been
+representations in the Chamber of Deputies as to the necessity for
+supplying current to all this part owing to the inflammable nature of
+the wood. The Societe is interested in the matter. I saw some
+correspondence about it in the office, but the people in this part are
+very conservative and none too well off, either. Let us have a look."
+
+They came up to the light. It was not a street lamp, but projected from
+above the door of an old and rather shabby building, and immediately
+beneath it was a trade sign which could easily be read in the stronger
+illumination. This was the sign:
+
+
+           CARNET FRERES,
+
+     GRAVEURS SUR BOIS BOISAGE.
+
+
+"Well, here's something," Gregory said, "and by the fact that the light
+is still on, one may suppose that there is someone inside. It is a
+wood-engraver's and wood-turner's workshop, you see. Yes, the door's
+actually open! We will go in and inquire where we are."
+
+As he spoke he pushed open a swing door of wood, from which the paint
+was peeling, and, followed by Deschamps, entered without further ado.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+The two young men were conscious of a pleasant sensation of warmth as
+the door swung to behind them.
+
+They found themselves in a narrow passage, and immediately to their left
+was a glass window like the window of a conciergerie, one panel of which
+was open and looked into a dingy office lit by a single gas jet. There
+was nothing in the office but a safe, a desk round the wall, and some
+high stools, while a cheap French clock ticked from a bracket upon the
+wall.
+
+"At any rate, whoever they are, they have not gone," said Deschamps with
+satisfaction. "Now we shall be all right," and as he said it he rapped
+loudly with his knuckles upon the little counter in front of the glass
+partition. They waited for nearly half a minute, but there was no
+response. Finally Gregory took his walking stick and beat a tattoo upon
+the counter. The sound of his knocking had hardly died away when
+footsteps were heard in the distance. They grew nearer, and a door
+leading into the office behind the partition was pushed open, and a
+strange and rather startling figure entered.
+
+This was a little man not more than four feet high, wearing a round
+black cap of alpaca, a green baize apron, and a huge circular pair of
+spectacles. His face was brown and shrivelled. A fine network of
+wrinkles was all over it, and beneath the alpaca cap were straggling
+locks of dingy white. The nose which supported the pair of grotesque
+horn spectacles was large and bird-like, the mouth below was innocent
+and kindly.
+
+The little man, in short, looked exactly like the traditional toy or
+clock maker of Nuremberg in a comic opera, stepping clean off the stage
+to greet the new-comers.
+
+He looked up at them with a courteous but inquiring glance as he turned
+up the gas jet and they saw him more clearly. Then, placing two soiled
+and wrinkled, but delicate and capable, hands upon the counter, he made
+an odd bow.
+
+"Messieurs?" he said, in a thin, piping voice.
+
+Deschamps raised his hat. "I am sorry to say that my friend and I have
+lost our way," he began. "The fog is very thick to-night, and it is
+growing thicker and thicker. We have come quite out of our route, and do
+not know where we are. We are trying to get to the Latin Quarter, where
+we live."
+
+The little man raised his hands, and as he did so, both young men
+noticed how prehensile and delicate they were--the hands of a master
+workman.
+
+"_Mon Dieu!_" he said, "but you are very far out of your way, indeed,
+gentlemen. This is the Rue Petite Louise. It is not a thoroughfare at
+all. It is only a cul-de-sac, which winds among the wood-yards. Between
+here and the Latin Quarter the district is very congested, and you might
+walk about all night in a fog like this unless you could find a
+taxi-cab."
+
+"I am afraid there won't be any cabs abroad to-night in this part of
+Paris," Gregory broke in. "Well, we must just take our chance. I thank
+you very much, monsieur."
+
+"But it is impossible!" the odd little creature said with a tiny
+shriek. "The hour is already late, gentlemen; the fog, as you say, grows
+thicker every moment. And, look you, on a night like this there will be
+all sorts of robbers abroad. It is most unsafe."
+
+Deschamps shrugged his shoulders. "Doubtless," he said, "but there is
+nothing else for it."
+
+The little man on the other side of the counter peered at them anxiously
+through his great round spectacles. "But, yes," he said, in a plaintive
+bleat, "if affairs call you home, monsieur--doubtless madame will be
+distressed--then, indeed you must go, but----"
+
+Deschamps laughed. "No, we have no business; we have finished our work
+for the day, and we are not married; still----"
+
+"The matter is settled," said the old gentleman, with a child-like
+smile. "You will do me the honour of coming into our workshop
+immediately. We have a fire there, soup, bread, and _vin ordinaire_ are
+ready, and there is enough for all. My brother will be as pleased as I
+am to have the honour of offering you hospitality on such a night.
+No"--he waved his hands in reply to a murmur of protest from
+Deschamps--"we could not let you go. Stay with us until the morning, and
+we will do our best to make you comfortable as may be."
+
+Eager, chirping and twittering like an excited bird, the odd, old fellow
+unlatched a half-door, pushed up the counter-flap and bowed them into
+the little office. In a moment they had passed through it into a long,
+narrow room with a high roof which seemed to be of glass.
+
+The place was lit by a huge fire of coal and wood, which glowed in an
+open hearth, and by the side of it was a small forge. The red light
+streamed out in a mysterious radiance upon a workshop crowded with
+tools, long tables, stacks of rare and polished woods, and here and
+there an unfamiliar machine.
+
+The only other light came from two candles stuck upon a bench in their
+own grease, and the whole effect was startlingly curious and unexpected.
+It was as picturesque as some carefully set scene upon the stage, and
+seemed utterly removed from the modern life of a great city. The red
+light of the fire left distant corners of the workshop in black,
+impenetrable shadow, making it seem of vast extent.
+
+Around the fire, however, the half-circle of light it threw out showed
+everything with great distinctness.
+
+Gregory and Deschamps looked round them with bewildered eyes, and then,
+simultaneously, they gasped.
+
+Rising from an old oak chair, emerging from its depths rather, there
+came another little man towards them.
+
+In every particular he was exactly like their guide. In that bizarre
+light, at any rate, hardly anyone could have told them apart, and as he
+stepped forward he peered at them through identical round spectacles.
+
+"My brother, Edouard," said the old man who had welcomed them. "Edouard,
+these gentlemen have lost their way in the fog. They are very far from
+their home, and it would be dangerous for them to seek it to-night
+without a proper guide. I have accordingly asked them to come in, and
+begged of them to share our simple supper, and to wait till the fog
+goes."
+
+"But I am enchanted!" said the second little man, settling his round
+alpaca cap upon his head and waving his right arm in an expressive
+pantomime of welcome. "But this is most fortunate, gentlemen. Supper is
+nearly ready; come to the fire. Charles and myself are delighted to be
+of service."
+
+The sudden transition from bitter cold and the grey blanket of the fog
+to this extraordinary place bewildered both the engineers. It was almost
+as if they moved among the scenes of some fantastic dream, as they sat
+down upon a bench by the fire, removed their damp hats and overcoats,
+and looked around them.
+
+Was this really modern Paris? Who were these two kindly, dwarf-like
+creatures who had welcomed them into this warm, secret place, which
+seemed like a cavern of the gnomes?
+
+Suddenly Basil Gregory became conscious that "my brother Charles" was
+standing before him and speaking.
+
+"We are the Carnet Freres," he was saying, "and twin brethren also! I
+noticed, monsieur, you were startled as Edouard came to greet you. And,
+_naturellement_, this old workshop of ours is something out of the
+ordinary way. But we have lived and worked here for twenty years, my
+brother and I--we have a sleeping-room at the back--and what we do for
+our living is a small and specialised branch of the wood-worker's trade,
+and we have the monopoly of it."
+
+Basil bowed. "My comrade, Monsieur Emile Deschamps," he said. "I, myself
+am an Englishman, and my name is Gregory."
+
+The hands of Brother Charles flickered in front of him. "But it is
+wonderful!" he said with the pleased surprise of a child with a new toy.
+"You are English to look at, monsieur. There is nothing of the Latin
+about you; and yet you speak French as well as I do."
+
+"I have lived nearly all my life in Paris," Basil answered with a smile.
+
+"That accounts for it," the other twittered. "And now I see Brother
+Edouard is preparing the meal. _Mon Dieu_, Edouard, how hungry these
+poor gentlemen must be!"
+
+An iron pot was hooked over the fire--a steaming pot, a pot of fragrant
+promise. From it into stout china bowls Brother Edouard was ladleing
+thick brown soup.
+
+Brother Charles wheeled round to the long work-bench and began to cut
+thick slices of bread, to rattle spoons, parade a somewhat dingy cruet,
+set flat-footed glasses by each bowl, and uncork two bottles of _vin
+ordinaire_.
+
+Overflowing with hospitality and the most charming child-like
+excitement, the odd, bird-like hosts served the soup and poured out that
+cheap table-wine of Paris, which is exactly the colour of permanganate
+of potash and water.
+
+Basil and Emile sat down without further ado, and for five minutes there
+was a happy silence. The _pot-au-feu_ was rich and nourishing. The wine
+was exactly that to which the friends themselves were accustomed. The
+fog and the cold in the ridiculous, inhospitable outside world was quite
+forgotten, and it seemed as if some malignant fog-curtain in their own
+brains had now rolled up and disappeared.
+
+The faces of the two young men lost their pinched and discontented look.
+Anxiety faded from their eyes, and as they passed their cigarette cases
+to their hosts, and four thin blue spirals of smoke rose out of the red
+light to be lost in the shadows of the roof, Basil Gregory and Emile
+Deschamps had lost all thought of care.
+
+It seemed quite natural, perfectly in the order of things, to be sitting
+there with their fantastic and courteous entertainers in a strange,
+mediaeval setting--two starving wayfarers upon a hillside, taken in to
+the cave of the kindly gnomes, or the workshop of beneficent magicians.
+
+"Your cigarettes are of the best tobacco, monsieur," said Charles
+Carnet. "_Au bon fumeur!_ My brother and I had expected to spend a
+lonely evening. Here's to the fortunate chance that brought us guests!"
+
+He tossed off a thimbleful of the purple wine with a flourish.
+
+"But I could wish, gentlemen," said his brother, "that we could have
+entertained you better, I am afraid we are old-fashioned in our ways,
+and prefer a simple menage. At any rate, there might have been more
+light upon the scene. The fire is all very well, but these two candles
+give hardly any illumination. As a rule, our workshop is lit with
+electric light, and we also use the current for our lathe. An hour ago,
+however, there was a 'fizz' and a 'spit' from that porcelain box there
+in the casing of the electric wires, and, behold! the light went and the
+lathe will not work. It has happened before, and we must now wait till
+to-morrow for the electrician to come from the works and put it right
+for us."
+
+Basil Gregory laughed. "Fate hath many surprises, Monsieur Carnet," he
+said, "and surely we have been specially sent to your assistance
+to-night! My friend and I are both electrical engineers attached to the
+superintending station of the Societe Generale at Mont Parnasse. I
+expect I know what has happened. And I shall be very much mistaken if I
+cannot put it right for you in two or three minutes."
+
+The little gentlemen were on their feet in a second, chirping and
+twittering with pleasure.
+
+"_Tiens!_ Edouard," said Brother Charles, "we have been entertaining
+angels unawares!"
+
+"You are right, Charles," said Brother Edouard. "Angels of light."
+
+Gregory and Deschamps went to the opposite wall of the workshop, moving
+cautiously among the benches, litter of wood-blocks and tools. Deschamps
+held one of the candles while Gregory deftly unscrewed the round
+porcelain cap of the cut-out. It was as he suspected, and he pulled out
+the semi-circular china bridge from its brass clips and showed it to his
+hosts.
+
+"It is quite simple," he said. "Between this brass screw and this, there
+is always a soft wire made of tin and lead--fusible metal, we call it.
+All the current which lights your lamps and runs your lathes passes
+through the insulated copper wires, but it has to pass through the
+little lead wire as well. From some reason or other the current gets too
+strong and might heat the wires and create a fire; the little lead wire
+strung on this half-circle melts with the heat, and the current is shut
+off. That was the spitting noise you heard."
+
+He plunged his hand into a side pocket and withdrew a small coil of fuse
+wire, which every practical engineer carries, and a screwdriver. In half
+a minute he had fixed three inches of the soft lead wire into the
+bridge, and snapped the bridge into its place in the box.
+
+There was a click as the blocks came home, and then, in an instant, the
+long workshop was flooded with white light, while at the far end of it
+the motor, and the lathe it drove, began to hum and clatter with a
+sudden, disconcerting noise.
+
+Edouard Carnet ran to the lathe and pulled down the tumbler switch. The
+noise stopped, but the brilliant illumination remained, and entirely
+changed the aspect of the room.
+
+The great fire glowed a dull red now. The shadows shrivelled up into the
+corners and disappeared. Every object in the workshop was distinct and
+well-defined.
+
+"A thousand thanks, monsieur," said the little men. "Another glass of
+wine! We will go back to the fireside and drink in light and comfort."
+
+The four of them found their way back to their seats, and began to talk
+again. The eyes of the newcomers, however, were straying round the
+workshop with a curiosity they could hardly disguise. The place had been
+mysterious before, and strangely picturesque in the half light. It was
+mysterious no longer, but a picturesqueness lingered still, while there
+was much that neither of them were able to understand.
+
+Suddenly Deschamps gave an exclamation. His eye had fallen upon
+something which interested and excited him, something which called up
+golden visions.
+
+"_Tiens!_" he cried, jumping up from his seat, and going over to the
+adjacent table. "And what have we here?"
+
+Upon the table was a circular basin--rather larger than an ordinary
+washing basin--beautifully made of polished black ebony, and with a rim
+that curved over upon the inside. Upon the inward curve of the basin, at
+regular distances, were diamond-shaped bosses of bright metal, while the
+whole of the bottom of the instrument consisted of a series of tin
+compartments painted black and red alternately, each compartment having
+a number painted upon it in white. These compartments were fixed to a
+moving disc, which could be rapidly rotated by means of a silver upright
+terminating in a sort of capstan, and rising above the sides of the
+bowl in the exact centre.
+
+Emile Deschamps knew very well what this was. He was of the South. He
+had been born near that fairy city on the Mediterranean where the
+Goddess of Chance rules supreme.
+
+"Then you make roulette wheels?" he cried, turning excitedly to the two
+little men. "But this one is superb! It is larger than you can buy in
+the shops. It is full size indeed--exactly as they are used at Monte
+Carlo!"
+
+With fingers that actually trembled, the young man twirled the silver
+capstan, and immediately the painted slots in the bowl became merged in
+a trembling blur of colour, as the disc revolved noiselessly, but at
+great speed.
+
+"It is perfect!" Emile went on, with a chuckle of excitement and
+delight. "It runs as sweetly and truly as those in the Casino itself!
+Basil, look here! See how delicate and beautiful this work is!"
+
+The brothers Carnet had risen to their feet also, and were standing side
+by side. Their bird-like faces were wreathed with gratified smiles. They
+bowed together like a grotesque toy.
+
+"Messieurs," said Brother Edouard, "we thank you for what you have
+said. The wheel is, indeed, as you say, a masterpiece! But it would be
+odd if it were not so, for, for twenty years my brother and myself have
+done nothing else than make just these wheels. Every single piece of it
+is our handiwork. We forge the nickel for the pivot and capstan, and we
+silver-plate it ourselves. We select the wood, we turn it--no other
+hands but ours touch the wheels. Brother Charles here even turns the
+ivory balls." He stepped up to the table, pulled out a long drawer, and
+lifted from it a walnut box lined with green baize, in which were a
+dozen small balls of ivory, the size of a large marble.
+
+"See!" he cried; "these also!"
+
+Basil had been examining the delicate and beautifully made machine with
+great interest while the Carnets had been speaking. He also had an eye
+for perfect workmanship, and it needed not the excited enthusiasm of his
+friend for him to realise that he saw it here.
+
+At the same time, he could not quite understand the sort of fever into
+which the sight of the roulette wheel had thrown Deschamps. It seemed
+exaggerated to the Englishman. Here was good workmanship, it was true.
+But why this torrent of excited words?
+
+"For twenty years!" Deschamps cried. "Then; indeed, monsieur, that
+explains it! But surely it cannot pay you to devote your life to this
+work, though it is certainly the finest I have ever seen, and far
+superior to anything one can buy in the shops!"
+
+The two brothers chuckled; and then Charles took up the tale.
+
+"Our wheels are not for sale," he said. "I must let you into a little
+secret, which, as our guests and men of honour, you will preserve. My
+brother and I make all the roulette wheels for the Casino at Monte
+Carlo. We have been employed by the Administration for many, many years.
+As you may well conceive, it is important that these machines should be
+perfect in every detail. Millions of francs depend upon it. We are
+retained at a large figure to construct the wheels. Every two years all
+the wheels at Monte Carlo are changed. There are twelve roulette tables
+generally in use. Every two years we send twelve wheels and the old ones
+are returned to us to be broken up. We can just make twelve within the
+two years. This one is the last of the new batch which will be
+dispatched to the south in three days in charge of two commissionaires
+from Monaco, who will never leave them out of their sight until they
+arrive at their destination."
+
+Basil listened to this explanation with interest. He had never been to
+Monte Carlo, though, in common with the rest of the world, he had heard
+many fabulous tales of the great gambling centre of the world. He saw,
+however, that Emile's imagination was profoundly stirred, and he
+listened, half dreamily, to the quick fire of eager questions and
+courteous answers which passed between Deschamps and his hosts.
+
+When this had a little died down, Emile turned to him and noticed his
+half-abstracted, half-amused expression.
+
+"Ah, _mon ami_," he said, "you wonder at me! This leaves you cold. It
+means nothing to you. To me, who have been, I myself, in those
+glittering halls of Chance, upon the edge of the Mediterranean, this
+machine brings intoxicating visions. It tells of men and women at the
+last gasp of hope, ruined in fortune, friendless, and with the whole
+face of the world set against them like a wall of polished brass. It
+tells me of a man like this entering through the great doors and issuing
+forth again within a few short hours, rich beyond his rosiest dreams,
+able to command all that life has to offer, the divine sense of power
+flowing in his veins, the cold brass wall gone and in its place a garden
+of roses! See!"
+
+With a swift motion of his hands he picked up one of the little ivory
+balls and twirled the capstan in the disc. The painted slots began to
+revolve, more slowly than before.
+
+Then, and obviously with a practised hand, Emile Deschamps held the ball
+between the thumb and two first fingers of his right hand, gave a swift
+motion of his wrist, and the little ivory cylinder whirled round the top
+of the basin under the overhanging lip, with that curious droning sound
+that no one who has ever heard it can quite forget.
+
+Click! crack! crack! The speed of the ball lessening, it was now
+rattling upon the diamond-shaped bosses on the side of the bowl, losing
+momentum with every moment, until it dropped upon the revolving disc
+below--revolving in the opposite direction to itself.
+
+And now there was a succession of sharp taps, as the little ball was
+tossed by the edges of the slots hither and thither, furiously jumping
+from one to the other, flung back for an instant upon the sloping side
+of the basin, returning to its mad career over the slots.
+
+And then--a sudden final click as it fell to rest. Silence!
+
+Immediately Deschamps put his finger upon the top of the capstan and
+stopped the revolutions of the slots.
+
+"Seven--red!" he cried. "Ah! if I had put but nine little golden louis
+upon that number, within a quarter of a minute I should have been richer
+by six thousand three hundred francs, more than twice what I earn in a
+whole year, Basil! In twenty little seconds! Now, do you see what this
+thing may mean?"
+
+Basil found himself strangely affected by his friend's enthusiasm. He
+knew nothing of roulette. He had occasionally seen a small wheel in a
+toy shop, but this so concrete illustration of the game startled him
+more than he would have been willing to admit.
+
+The thin voice of Edouard Garnet broke in. "Yes, monsieur," he said,
+"that is one vision, but there are others. Who should tell of those
+unhappy men who have followed the Goddess of Chance even to the very
+gates of death, until they have opened and closed upon them at last.
+Somewhere in the kingdom of Monaco there is a hidden graveyard; none
+know where it is. And in that dishonoured plot lies hundreds of nameless
+ones, who have yielded up their all--happiness, honour, life--to the
+ebony basin."
+
+Basil started. The words seemed to come strangely from the actual
+artificer of the wheel of fortune. Deschamps also looked curiously at
+the little man, whose face had suddenly gone grey and whose voice
+trembled. "But, monsieur," he said, in a hesitating voice.
+
+The other made a gesture with his hand. "Yes, yes," he replied, "I well
+know what you would say--such words come strangely from me or from my
+brother. But, monsieur"--he tapped the rim of the bowl with a thin
+hand--"this is the very last of these engines of hell that I or Charles
+will ever make!"
+
+He paused, struggling with some deep emotion. "We had a nephew," he
+continued, "my brother and I; the only relative left to us in the world.
+We loved him as if he had been a son. We saved, invested, and worked
+solely for him. We are rich, monsieur! Not only have our earnings been
+large, but we have saved, and invested our savings in safe rents. All,
+all was to have been his. Aristide was young, clever, and, backed by the
+fortune we could leave him, would have taken a high place in the world.
+He had gone to Marseilles on business for us, entrusted with a
+considerable sum of money. Some friends took him to Monte Carlo--it was
+only three months ago. He lost this money of ours at the tables--lost it
+by means of one of the very wheels we had made--and in despair he killed
+himself, though God knows how gladly we would have forgiven him. We have
+now completed our last contract for the Administration. We have
+resigned our position, and for the future others shall make the wheels.
+We will touch them no more."
+
+"Never again," Charles Carnet echoed his brother, but he looked lovingly
+at the glittering thing upon the table nevertheless. "No one will make
+the wheels like us again," he said with a sigh.
+
+The four men, oddly assorted as they were, gathered round the fire once
+more. There was but little conversation now. They gazed into the glowing
+heart of coals and wood-blocks, each busily occupied with his own
+troubled thoughts.
+
+Basil Gregory, warmed and comfortable as he was in body, felt very low
+in spirits. One of those moments had come to him when life seems a
+spoilt and futile thing. The future stretched before him in imagination
+like some great Essex marshland at evening, when the colour fades out of
+everything, the leaden tides creep inwards from the sea, and the curlews
+pipe to each other with melancholy voices, like souls sick for love.
+There was nothing, nothing! A dreary round of ill-paid mechanical
+duties, a long engagement which would probably never end in marriage,
+one of the most epoch-making inventions the world could ever know,
+locked up in his mind and that of his friend, Emile Deschamps.
+
+Thus the thoughts of the poor Englishman, Basil Gregory, as he gazed
+into the rose-pink and amethyst heart of the fire.
+
+The two old men were sadly remembering the recent loss of the
+bright-faced boy that had meant everything in their narrow, patient
+lives.
+
+Sadness lay like a veil upon the faces of all three.
+
+But Emile Deschamps' face was not sad. It was set and rigid. Not a
+feature of it moved. The brow was wrinkled and knotted with thoughts.
+There was a fixed and smouldering fire in the eyes. Once Basil looked at
+his friend and wondered what intense and concentrated thought was
+burning and glowing in the great executive brain of the Southerner. Had
+he known, had an inkling of it reached him, he would have leapt to his
+feet in the wildest excitement he had ever known.
+
+For, indeed, the fickle Goddess of Chance was abroad this night, and had
+led their footsteps to this secluded workshop. Unseen, unfelt by any
+save only Emile Deschamps, she was hovering in the room where the wheels
+of her votaries were made.
+
+About dawn a low wind arose and wailed around the quarter of the
+wood-turners. The deep mist vanished as grey light began to filter in
+through the glass roof of the workshop. With many thanks the two young
+men bade their hosts farewell, and went out into the chill morning air.
+
+A pressing invitation to come again whenever they liked, piped in unison
+by Brother Charles and Brother Edouard, was the last sound they heard as
+their feet echoed up the deserted street towards the great main
+thoroughfares of Paris.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+The next day was cold, but bright and sunny. From ten o'clock in the
+morning until _dejeuner_ at twelve o'clock, Ethel McMahon endeavoured to
+instil some rudimentary knowledge of English into the minds of the
+fifteen-year-old daughters of prosperous tradesmen of the Luxembourg
+district at the academy for young ladies of the Demoiselles de
+Custine-Seraphin, two elderly ladies in whom parsimony and the
+proprieties struggled for mastery.
+
+With many a sigh and shrug of disgust her demure charges had struggled
+with the intricacies of our language, had conjugated the verb "to love"
+in unexpected fashions, had laboriously assimilated the information that
+"ze weadder is going to be ver' fin to-day," and so forth.
+
+At twelve, together with her fellow-teachers, Mademoiselle Marie and
+Mademoiselle Augustine de Custine-Seraphin, Ethel had taken the second
+breakfast of thin soup, pallid mutton, and stale _tartines au
+confiture_. At one she was free--free till nine o'clock in the evening.
+And as she came downstairs from her room dressed to go out, her face was
+so radiant and changed in expression that Mademoiselle Marie de
+Custine-Seraphin tossed her head as the girl passed, and gave it as her
+undoubted opinion to her sister that _la jeune anglaise_ was certainly
+going to do more than spend a quiet afternoon and evening with her
+invalid mother.
+
+"Figure to yourself, Augustine; her face was of the most beaming, her
+eye had sparkle, her cheeks were colour of rose. _Ca fait un amant,
+n'est-ce pas?_"
+
+"_A la jeunesse, comme a la jeunesse,_" her sister replied with a shrug,
+and went on making up the account of Mademoiselle Hortense Dubois, the
+well-to-do butcher's daughter who was leaving school that quarter.
+
+Ethel McMahon hurried out of the quiet street in which the school was
+situated, walking towards the Luxembourg.
+
+She was a typically Irish girl in feature, with those dark-blue eyes,
+like hot Venetian water, that hair black as a bog-oak root, that
+complexion of cream and roses that is hardly seen anywhere outside the
+Isle of Unrest. She was tall and walked with a swing, as she threaded
+her way among the _chic_ and mincing Parisiennes towards her mother's
+tiny flat in the Rue Paczensky.
+
+Dull as the girl's life was, hard as she worked all day, her youth and
+vitality were stronger than the power of circumstances. Vivid and
+impulsive in all she did, a constant spring of hope welled up within
+her, and she was certain that sooner or later--she believed very
+soon--everything in her life would come right. Dear Basil would get some
+lucrative appointment, the great invention would be financed by some
+kindly millionaire who would appear in the nick of time. They would get
+married, her mother would be able to live in the far healthier air of
+the Alps, as the doctor had ordered. Day in and day out Ethel was
+convinced that all would be well, and whenever she saw her lover she
+comforted and inspirited him as if they were indeed husband and wife.
+
+Mrs. McMahon's flat of two rooms and a kitchen was high up in the great
+drab block of buildings, and, small as it was, the rent, as is the case
+with all flats in Paris, was proportionately high.
+
+As she entered the hallway Ethel was handed a bundle of letters by the
+concierge. She did not examine them at the moment, but ran lightly up
+the stairs to the flat.
+
+Mrs. McMahon was seated by the window of the sitting-room. A lace pillow
+with its pins and reels of thread was upon the table before her, and her
+thin hands were moving quickly and deftly over it hither and thither.
+
+It was Mrs. McMahon's specialty to copy old Valenciennes lace, which she
+did for a firm in the Rue de Rivoli. The labour was intense, the process
+wearingly long, but the few hundred francs earned during the year by
+this means helped to pay the rent.
+
+She was a tall, faded woman. The hair, which had once been as black as
+her daughter's, was now scanty and iron-grey. All the light had faded
+from the blue eyes, and she was painfully thin. She returned her
+daughter's caresses without much animation, and sat back in her
+old-fashioned chair with her hands lying idly in her lap, gazing at the
+girl in a lack-lustre way as she moved quickly about the room, taking
+off her hat and stole of cheap fur, giving a touch to the furniture here
+and there, and putting a little bunch of dark-red asters, which she had
+bought, into a vase upon the dining-table.
+
+"Well, Ethel, I suppose you have no news? I hope those old cats"--Mrs.
+McMahon was accustomed to refer to the Demoiselles de Custine-Seraphin
+in this way--"I hope those old cats have been behaving themselves
+better. I cannot think why you stay with them. Surely a girl with your
+knowledge of French as well as English, and with your appearance, could
+get something better to do. The salary they pay you is disgraceful."
+
+Ethel shook her head brightly; this was an old ground of debate between
+herself and the querulous invalid. "My dear mother," she said, "I really
+cannot afford to wait for anything better to turn up. If I could,
+possibly I might get something better to do, but that would mean coming
+home for perhaps three or four months, and you know we cannot possibly
+afford that. While I am at the school, of course, I cannot go looking
+after another post. So I must make the best of it, that's all."
+
+Mrs. McMahon coughed fretfully. "How horrified your poor dear father
+would have been," she said, "at the life you are leading now! It is my
+one consolation that Providence has spared him that!"
+
+Ethel said nothing in answer, though she had her doubts upon the
+subject. The late Captain McMahon had retired from the Irish Guards soon
+after getting his company and marrying pretty Miss Persse of county
+Galway. There were not wanting those who said that his retirement was
+more or less compulsory owing to rather too pronounced successes while
+holding the bank at baccarat or chemin de fer. Be that as it may,
+Ethel's memory of her childhood in various more or less shady
+Continental resorts was by no means a pleasant one. Captain McMahon had
+been one of those people whose whole philosophy is summed up in the
+expression, "Hang it, the luck _must_ turn!" He had wooed fortune
+wherever a casino or gambling hell was to be found upon the Continent
+of Europe; he had wooed her in vain; the luck never did turn.
+
+However, it was doubtless owing to this persistent optimism inculcated
+by her father that Ethel herself was enabled to bear up against the drab
+monotony of her life. She also felt instinctively that "the luck must
+turn." As for Mrs. McMahon herself, while she affected a consistent
+despair and the gloomiest outlook upon the future, she secretly
+nourished the most extravagant hopes, and was as much a gambler in
+temperament as her husband had been in action. Only the most limited
+opportunities of exercising her passion were given her, but of these she
+took advantage to the full.
+
+"I cannot think," the elder lady went on, "what that lover of yours can
+be about. Oh, I have nothing to say against Basil," she said hurriedly,
+as she saw Ethel's colour begin to rise, and her mouth to harden into
+mutiny. "Basil is a good fellow enough, and, of course, I know he is
+very clever at his electricity, and so on. He and that young Frenchman,
+Monsieur Deschamps, have no doubt got a fortune in their heads, as you
+are always telling me. All that I can say is that it seems likely to
+stay there. With your blood Ethel, for both the Persses and the McMahons
+rode straight for anything they wanted, I wonder at your choosing a boy
+like Basil, who seems to have no initiative, no dash. Ah, well! I
+suppose there are no soldiers of fortune nowadays. But, still, with your
+name and your appearance, I think you might have done better for
+yourself."
+
+Ethel knew it was useless to answer anything to this. She let her mother
+run on until she was tired, and then began to make tea, with a little
+spirit kettle.
+
+As she was doing this, she noticed the little pile of letters that the
+concierge had handed to her. The top one had not come by post, and was
+unstamped. Ethel knew the writing very well. It was that of the clerk
+who sent out demands and receipts for the rent at the office.
+
+"Ah!" she said; "here is the receipt for the quarter's rent." She had
+given her mother the money to pay it some time ago, and without thinking
+what she was doing, she opened the envelope.
+
+Mrs. McMahon rose from her seat in considerable agitation. Her hands
+trembled a little, and a bright colour came into her wan face.
+
+"Why, mother," Ethel said in alarm, "this is not a receipt at all! This
+is a letter from the office saying that the rent is much overdue, and
+pressing for immediate payment. I gave you the money!" The words died
+away from her lips as she saw the old lady, a picture of embarrassment,
+standing before her.
+
+"My dear," said Mrs. McMahon, in a shaking voice, "you really must allow
+me to manage the household finances in my own way. I am older and more
+experienced in life than you. I have temporarily--er--well, _invested_
+the rent money in the hopes, in the almost certainty, that in a day or
+so I shall be repaid a hundred-fold."
+
+Ethel sat down at the table with a deep sigh. "Oh, mother!" she said in
+a pleading voice, "how could you, how could you really? I suppose that
+it is one of those wretched lotteries again. I should not like to think
+how many precious francs have been simply thrown away in the last year
+or two. Hundreds and hundreds. It is simply madness to spend two or
+three hundred francs on a ticket for one of the wretched things when we
+have hardly money for the necessaries of life."
+
+The old lady began to cry weakly. "I did it for the best, Ethel," she
+said. "I am sure I thought that my bad luck could not go on much longer.
+I had such hopes this time."
+
+Ethel saw her opportunity. While her mother was in this state of
+penitence she might perhaps make a lasting impression.
+
+"Mother," she said, earnestly, "gambling nearly ruined my grandfather;
+it quite ruined father. We could not be much worse off than we are, but
+don't throw away the last thing that keeps us from absolute starvation.
+Do not destroy the roof over our heads! If there were only something in
+it, I should not so much mind. To win anything in these affairs robs
+nobody. But there never _is_ anything in it, worse luck. From us, at any
+rate, the spirit of Chance has turned her head; gambling of any sort is
+ruin."
+
+"It is--it is," the old lady sobbed, now thoroughly broken down. "Oh,
+that I had never been drawn into it, had never had the poison instilled
+into my blood! But this is the last time, Ethel, dear; it is the last
+time, I promise you. And how to pay the rent I do not know."
+
+Ethel sighed heavily. The rent could be paid this time, she knew. She
+had been fortunate in securing some extra English lessons during the
+last quarter--lessons which were given privately to a girl of about her
+own age, and which had brought her in a few louis; but she had wanted
+this money so badly for clothes. It was dreadful to go out with Basil on
+their rather rare holidays and to look dowdy and shabby, as she was only
+too conscious of being. She knew--what pretty girl does not?--how
+important decent clothes are, and she longed that her lover should see
+her dressed like other maidens in the restaurants and minor places of
+amusement where he was able to take her. And now--that was another
+little dream gone. The old brown coat and skirt and the imitation
+astrachan muff and stole would have to do for the rest of the winter;
+there was bitterness in the thought which no man can fathom.
+
+"Oh, well," she said in a dull voice, "I have saved up a little, and I
+suppose it will be enough for the rent. But, oh, mother, how could you
+do it!"
+
+"Never again! never again!" wailed the old lady, and with a dull pain at
+her heart Ethel left the room and went into the little kitchen to fetch
+the tea things.
+
+She was a little longer in the kitchen than she had anticipated. Tears
+were in her eyes also, and it required all her resolution and
+self-control to keep them back, and to preserve her ordinary composure.
+At last, with a heavy sigh and trying to twist her face into the
+semblance of a smile, she took up the tray and went back into the
+sitting-room, resolved to comfort her mother as well as she could.
+
+Mrs. McMahon, to her daughter's immense surprise, was standing by the
+window, very erect, with all traces of recent tears and penitence
+absolutely gone from her face. There was a superior and almost haughty
+smile upon the old lady's lips.
+
+Ethel stared in wild astonishment at this transformation.
+
+"Put the things down, my dear," said Mrs. McMahon, in a calm and
+patronising voice. "Perhaps when you have heard what I have got to say,
+you will realise the wisdom of trusting to older and more experienced
+people. I do not blame you, Ethel; you are but a child after all and can
+know nothing of the world. But I do ask you to trust to the wisdom and
+judgment of your elders in future. If you do so, and allow yourself to
+be guided by me in everything, then we shall very soon be relieved from
+our present position, and be able to return to that place in society
+which our birth and connections warrant."
+
+Ethel dropped the tray some inches upon the table with a crash. Her
+lower lip dropped. Her eyes were wide.
+
+Mrs. McMahon looked down upon her daughter--she was slightly taller than
+Ethel when she stood erect--with a kindly and compassionate smile, as
+one looks at a beloved but tiresome and fretful child.
+
+"I suppose," she said, "that a little sum of two thousand five hundred
+francs would be sufficient to pay the rent?"
+
+Ethel gasped.
+
+"I suppose," Mrs. McMahon continued, "that you would regard a return of
+a hundred pounds for an investment of ten fairly remunerative?"
+
+Ethel murmured something or other, she hardly knew what.
+
+Then Mrs. McMahon condescended to explain. Her eagerness burst through,
+her high comedy manner vanished.
+
+"Oh, my dear, my dear!" she cried, "the luck has turned at last! After
+all these years! Look! look!"
+
+With shaking hands she held out some papers to Ethel. A typewritten
+sheet was headed, "Koeniglich-Preussiche-Klassen-Lotterie," and stated in
+French that Mrs. McMahon, who had purchased the eighth of a ticket in
+the famous Berlin lottery, had thereby won a sum of 2,000 Marks German,
+or--was added in parentheses--2,500 francs. A pink draft upon the Credit
+Lyonnais was enclosed for the sum.
+
+"Oh, mother!" Ethel gasped, in the sudden shock, "two thousand five
+hundred francs! A hundred pounds!" And, quite forgetful of her former
+strictures, she hugged the trembling old lady again and again. "We are
+rich! we are rich!" she cried, and a vision crossed her mind of an
+inexpensive hat she had but lately seen in the Rue de Rivoli--a perfect
+duck of a hat!
+
+They sat down to tea, and never was there a happier meal. Ethel was to
+meet Basil at six, and he was to take her out to dinner.
+
+"Oh, mother," she said, "how delighted Basil will be to hear the news! I
+am so sorry I spoke as I did, but it all seemed so hopeless. I see now
+that I was wrong."
+
+Mrs. McMahon smiled. "My dear," she said, "remember that it is a rule in
+life that nothing venture, nothing have. This money seems a great deal,
+no doubt, and it certainly more than repays all that I have spent to get
+it, so that we are on the right side, after all, as your poor dear
+father used to say. But it is a principle in these affairs--and you will
+admit now that I know something about them--always to follow up your
+luck. It is the people who do not do that who never deserve to have
+any, and very rarely do have any."
+
+Ethel did not quite understand what the elder lady meant, but she
+nodded. "Go on, mother dear," she answered.
+
+Mrs. McMahon, who for the last two or three minutes had been sitting
+lost in thought, turned to her daughter. Her face was grave, but it
+showed a strangely suppressed excitement, and there was an odd glimmer
+in her eyes. "First of all, dear," she said, "we must pay the rent. Your
+little savings will not be required, after all. You can renovate your
+wardrobe, and I will add something to help you. More especially, you
+will have to get a really good evening gown, and a smart hat to wear
+with it."
+
+Ethel stared. "But, mother," she said, "surely that is an extravagance?
+I never go anywhere where a smart evening gown is wanted. And you know
+what such things cost."
+
+"A smart evening gown," Mrs. McMahon went on, almost as if she were
+talking to herself. "We must spend as little as possible upon it, but it
+must be decent. For myself, I have something that will do--that is, in
+the first instance."
+
+"What are you talking about, mother dear?" Ethel asked.
+
+"Now listen, Ethel," her mother replied. "A chance has come to us. It
+may well be our one and only chance. We must grasp it, or let it go by
+for ever. Fortune always turns her face away from those who refuse to
+follow when she beckons. I have a plan. We must take Fortune at the
+flood, as I said. To begin with, we must tell Basil Gregory nothing
+whatever of this little bit of good fortune which has befallen us. You
+must not say a word to him about it, or even hint at it."
+
+"Oh, but mother, he would be so delighted to know. I always share
+everything with Basil."
+
+"No doubt," said Mrs. McMahon, "but in this case I want you to do
+nothing of the sort. You will know why in a moment. Basil, dear fellow
+as he is--I am sorry I made some petulant remarks about your engagement
+a few minutes ago--is an Englishman. Apart from his high scientific
+attainments, which have yet to be proved, by the way, Basil has all the
+Englishman's solidity and caution. He is not imaginative. He is not a
+man to risk anything upon a supreme chance. Now, regard the situation in
+which we are."
+
+"We are free from all debt, at any rate," Ethel answered wonderingly;
+"and we shall have a nice little surplus in hand."
+
+"You must look farther than that, my dear," said her mother, with the
+odd brightness in her eyes growing more marked than ever. "A hundred
+pounds is all very well. We may buy shares in other lottery tickets. We
+may even buy a whole ticket, but that is a single chance, and means a
+great deal of waiting. Since Fortune is smiling upon us there is another
+and surer way to court her favours. I have been thinking quickly, as I
+generally do when there is something important to be decided. With this
+money"--she began to speak slowly and impressively--"you and I can go to
+Monte Carlo. We can go by the slow train, third class. It will take us
+twenty-four hours, and not be very comfortable. But that I can endure,
+and if I can, then so can you. I know the Principality of Monaco very
+well. At Monte Carlo itself all the hotels and places are terribly
+expensive, and far beyond our means, but only a quarter of a mile away,
+in that part known as the Condamine, there are lots of quite inexpensive
+_pensions_ which would serve our purpose very well."
+
+"But what on earth are we to do in Monte Carlo? and how can I leave the
+school?"
+
+"The school, my dear Ethel, is of minor importance. Nothing venture,
+nothing have. What we are to do at Monte Carlo is to turn what will
+remain of our hundred pounds into such a sum as will make us independent
+for the rest of our lives--a sum that will allow me to go to
+Switzerland, as the doctor ordered, that will start you comfortably in
+your married life with Basil Gregory."
+
+The last shot told, and set the girl's pulses throbbing furiously.
+
+"Oh, mother," she said, "if it were only possible!"
+
+"It is perfectly possible, my dear Ethel," Mrs. McMahon returned, and
+there was such calm certainty in her tone that the eager girl, carried
+off her feet by the arrival of the lottery cheque, and the brilliant
+vista which was beginning to unveil itself, hardly questioned her
+mother's wisdom at all.
+
+"I know Monte Carlo very well," said the old lady. "I was there often
+enough with your poor dear father. On one occasion he lost every penny
+he had at the tables there, and we were compelled to apply to the
+Administration for what they call the _viatique_--that is, a sufficient
+sum to pay our expenses back to Paris, from whence we had come. It is
+never refused. But, on looking back, I see how foolish both your father
+and I were. We played recklessly. We ignored the most elementary rules
+of chance. We were rightly punished. For many months now I have been
+dreaming of just such a chance as has come to us at last. I have been
+studying the new book written by a professor, who won large sums of
+money at Monte Carlo, in the interests of mathematics, on the Theory of
+Probabilities. I have gained much knowledge from it. I propose to
+utilise that knowledge very shortly."
+
+"Then you have definite plans?" Ethel asked.
+
+"Perfectly definite, my dear. I have only been waiting to put them into
+execution. The time has now arrived. We will get the necessary
+clothes--for in order to obtain the entree to the Casino, one must be
+decently dressed--and we will go to Monte Carlo at once. Three days'
+careful play at roulette--for I do not intend to go near the
+_trente-et-quarante_ tables--will either see us with a sufficient
+fortune for our needs or take all we have got. Even if it does, we shall
+be little worse off than we are at present. Nothing can take my hundred
+a year from me, and you will easily find another post. It may even be
+that you can obtain a week's leave of absence from those old cats. It is
+worth while trying, at any rate. If not, you must resign the whole
+thing. For my part, I feel fully confident that you will never have to
+go back to such dreary drudgery."
+
+Confidence expressed in an authoritative tone by an elder is infectious.
+Confidence already backed up by an initial proof is more infectious
+still. Ethel McMahon's scruples, doubts and hesitations vanished
+utterly, and she threw herself wholeheartedly into her mother's scheme.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+At six o'clock Basil came for Ethel. Mrs. McMahon greeted him rather
+more kindly than usual, and he noticed it with some surprise, for he was
+always conscious that the old lady did not care much for him. A
+humble-minded man, and bitterly conscious of his unsuccessful life, he
+was certain that such a radiant being as Ethel was a thousand times too
+good for him, and was even inclined to acquiesce in the old lady's
+estimate in a way that provoked his fiancee enormously.
+
+He noticed also that in addition to the access of kindliness, there was
+a distinct patronage in Mrs. McMahon's manner. Her usual despondency
+seemed to have disappeared. She spoke largely and vaguely of "the
+future." He could not understand it at all.
+
+"What on earth has happened to your mother?" he asked Ethel, as they
+descended the stone stairs towards the street. "I never saw her so
+chirpy, darling."
+
+Ethel hesitated for a moment. She was bright and animated herself, and
+she pressed his arm affectionately before replying. She was so
+accustomed to share her every hope and thought with her lover that she
+found it difficult to frame a suitable reply. "Oh, well, you know,
+mother has ups and downs like the rest of us," she said at length.
+"To-day she is in particularly good spirits."
+
+Basil sighed. "I wish I had the recipe," he said; "try to get it from
+her. It would be particularly useful just now."
+
+"Are you depressed, dear?" the girl asked.
+
+"Horribly; things seem worse than ever. Oh, Ethel, darling, it is
+dreadful to say so, but I do not think we shall ever be married!"
+
+"You are not to talk like that, Basil; it is perfectly ridiculous, and I
+won't have it. Look at me. Am I depressed?"
+
+"No," the man answered, looking wonderingly at her. "You have caught
+your mother's mood. But the last time we were out together, if you
+remember, you were as sad as I. We walked about the Luxembourg Gardens
+for an hour bewailing our lot."
+
+"Yes, and after dinner we were as happy as possible, and made all sorts
+of plans. We furnished the drawing-room that evening, I think--or was it
+the dining-room?"
+
+Basil laughed, but there was no mirth in his laughter. "It doesn't
+matter much," he replied, "but to-night I do not think I could take any
+interest in the attics of our Castle in Spain. For that's what it is,
+dearest, at present, and that's what I am sure it will remain."
+
+"I have told you before, Basil, that you are not to talk like that. I
+simply won't have it. _Entend-tu?_ Has anything happened to make you
+feel more despondent than usual?"
+
+"Well, not exactly, and yet in a way there has, though it is only a
+little thing."
+
+"Tell me, dear."
+
+"Oh, only that Deschamps has suddenly grown quite extraordinary in his
+manner. You know what absolute friends we were?"
+
+"I know," she nodded. "Have I not been horribly jealous of you two at
+times, sitting correcting exercises in that dreadful school in the
+evening, and thinking of you two men talking away together without
+anyone to interrupt?"
+
+Man-like, Basil Gregory did not quite appreciate the underlying feeling
+in this remark.
+
+"It has simply kept me alive," he went on, "and kept hope burning within
+me to be with Emile Deschamps. You see, our invention is just as much
+his as mine. We have worked it out together as if with one mind. Our
+interests are absolutely identical."
+
+"But I don't exactly understand what has happened, Basil."
+
+"His manner has absolutely changed ever since last night, when we had
+quite an adventure, he and I."
+
+"An adventure?" she asked quickly. "And what was that?"
+
+In reply Basil told her the whole history of the fantastic night. He
+told it well, warming to the work as he did so, and she saw the picture
+unfold itself--the queer, bird-like little men, the huge workshop with
+its strange implements, the welcome hospitality.
+
+"And then," he concluded, "it turned out that they were hereditary
+makers of the roulette wheels for the gambling at Monte Carlo. They have
+made them for ever so many years, and they were just employed upon the
+last wheel of all on that very night. They are going to resign their
+position. They have made sufficient money upon which to live, and a
+young nephew of theirs, who gambled at Monte Carlo with money that was
+not his own, and afterwards committed suicide, has disgusted them, very
+naturally, with the whole thing."
+
+Ethel's reply amazed him.
+
+They were approaching the Rue Crois de Petits Champs, and she stopped
+upon the pavement and positively clutched his arm.
+
+"And will the wheel you saw actually be used at Monte Carlo?" she asked
+in a voice that had suddenly become almost breathless.
+
+He nodded, too surprised to speak.
+
+"And you touched it?"
+
+"Oh, yes; I twirled the beastly thing round, if that's what you mean.
+But why all this interest?"
+
+Again for a moment she answered nothing, though her face had grown
+suddenly pale from excitement.
+
+"I cannot tell you," she said at length, "though it may seem strange to
+you. It is a sudden thought, that is all. And, oh, Basil, dear, I
+somehow believe that it is a good omen, that it means fortune for both
+of us. Oh, I'm certain of it."
+
+"What a queer little darling you are!" he said, with a laugh at her
+earnest manner. "But we must not block up the pavement like this. Come
+along."
+
+They went onwards to their destination, a quaint little restaurant known
+as the "Restaurant de l'Universe et Portugal," which they had discovered
+some weeks before, and where one could get a really excellent dinner for
+two francs fifty a head.
+
+For the remaining three minutes of their walk neither of them said
+anything. Every pulse in Ethel's body was leaping with excitement.
+
+The coincidence was too strange. She was not more superstitious than
+most people, though like most people she had an undefined though real
+belief in premonitions and omens. And in this case the wish was indeed
+father to the thought. She had been so carried away by the minor success
+of the ticket in the first instance, and by her mother's plan in the
+second, that Basil's story seemed almost a direct and miraculous
+confirmation of her hopes. When they were seated at their accustomed
+table in the corner of the quiet little restaurant, and a delicious _pot
+au feu_ was before them, she began to ply her lover with eager
+questions, making him recount every detail of the previous evening. He
+told her all that she wished to know, but suddenly she noticed that his
+face was still sad, and his eyes dreamy and introspective.
+
+She remembered with a pang of accusation what he had been saying about
+Emile Deschamps.
+
+"Oh, Basil," she said with pretty penitence, "here am I bothering you
+about last night, and you have not even told me what you were going to
+about Monsieur Deschamps. You said something had depressed you--some
+change in him?"
+
+"Well, it has," the young man replied. "When we got home in the early
+morning to our hotel we neither of us wanted to go to bed, so we lit the
+stove and sat up in my room. I could not get Emile to say a word. He
+absolutely refused to discuss the events in the Rue Petite Louise. He
+scowled at me when I tried to draw him into conversation, as if I were
+trying to do him some injury. I have never known him like that. After
+about an hour I lay down on the bed and went to sleep, till they brought
+our morning coffee.
+
+"About ten we walked to the works together. We have been there all day
+till just before I came to fetch you. Upon the way Emile was just as
+moody and brusque as ever. As he did not want to talk about those two
+kindly little men, I thought I would try another tack, and I began to
+discuss a detail of our invention. It is an improvement upon what we
+have already done, and at ordinary times such a thing would never fail
+to interest him."
+
+"And didn't he rise to that?" Ethel asked.
+
+"Never a bit. And that disturbed me more than ever, for it is so unlike
+him. All day he has been the same. We usually go to _dejeuner_ together
+at a little cafe close to the works. This morning he positively refused
+to come with me, and, when I asked why, he insulted me. He was like a
+bear with a sore head."
+
+"And you went alone?"
+
+"Yes, and I have been alone ever since, and have been brooding over the
+position and got myself into a thoroughly depressed state of mind."
+
+"Well, never mind, dear," Ethel replied, "get out of it now. How good
+this omelette is! And the wine, too; really, I think the _vin ordinaire_
+here is better than anywhere else in Paris. Cheer up, old boy, because I
+am perfectly certain that everything is going to come right, and more
+quickly than you have any idea of."
+
+She spoke the last words with meaning, and Basil looked at her, trying
+to read her face.
+
+"Have you got something at the back of your mind, sweetheart?" he asked.
+
+She nodded. She could not help it.
+
+"There is something," she said--"a little something. I cannot tell you
+now, because it is not my secret, but wait and see. You will know more
+before long. For my part, I feel more happy and hopeful than I have been
+since our engagement."
+
+For a moment he caught something of her gaiety. He lifted his glass, and
+drank. "To the future," he said, but the momentary animation flickered
+out, and it was a silent and sorrowful young man who kissed her farewell
+about half-past nine, at the corner of the street in which was the
+establishment for young ladies of the Demoiselles de Custine-Seraphin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Gregory arrived at his hotel in the Latin Quarter about ten. Loneliness
+oppressed him, and he went to the couple of attics upon the top floor
+tenanted by himself and Deschamps. He hoped that the latter was in, and
+in a better mood. He wanted an explanation from him, and he was haunted
+by some half-formed fear that the Frenchman knew of some calamity that
+might be about to overtake them--that something had gone wrong, perhaps,
+with the great invention, or that their positions at the Societe
+Generale Electrique were jeopardised.
+
+There was no one in Deschamps' room as he switched on the electric
+light, so he crossed the landing and entered his own.
+
+This room also was untenanted, but the light was full on. He started,
+for it could not have been turned on by him, and electric lights burning
+at unnecessary hours were viewed with great disfavour and the
+subsequent result in the monthly bill by the hotel proprietor. Almost
+immediately, however, he understood, for a note in Deschamps'
+handwriting, and addressed to him, lay upon the table.
+
+He picked it up, and tore open the flimsy envelope, his hand trembling
+as he did so.
+
+For some reason or other he felt strangely excited, and he experienced
+the feeling that something is about to happen which comes to everyone at
+certain times. The note was quite short. It stated that Deschamps had
+gone again to the Rue Petite Louise to visit the Carnet brothers, and
+told Basil, in terms that were imperative, to proceed there immediately
+upon his return. That there might be no doubt whatever of Deschamps'
+meaning, the letter concluded by saying, "The matter is most urgent. I
+can say no more, but come."
+
+As Basil walked the considerable distance towards the woods quarter, he
+was ill at ease and also in a bad temper. It was impossible to disregard
+such a summons, but he saw no use nor meaning in it, while it seemed to
+him almost an impoliteness to trouble the kindly entertainers of the
+night before so soon again. He found his way to the long, narrow street
+of the wood-sheds and wood-workers without much difficulty, only once
+having to ask the way. As before, the street was ill-lit, and perfectly
+quiet, though this time he could see it much more plainly owing to the
+absence of fog and the light of a watery moon. He entered the little
+passage, and rapped on the counter. Almost immediately that he had done
+so the door behind flew open and Brother Charles came out.
+
+The little man was apparently delighted to see him. He was cordiality
+itself.
+
+"Monsieur Deschamps is within," he said. "Enter, monsieur. We have been
+expecting you."
+
+Greatly wondering what this might mean, Basil Gregory passed through
+into the workshop, where he found Edouard Carnet and Deschamps sitting
+by the fire.
+
+On this occasion one of the principal workbenches had been cleared of
+lumber, and a white cloth was spread upon it, with a salad and boned
+chickens from some neighbouring restaurant, flanked by several bottles
+of that execrable sweet champagne beloved by the unsophisticated
+Parisian at times of festival--the Parisian being at once the most
+accomplished gourmet, and the worst judge in Europe of sparkling wines.
+
+Deschamps, who rose with his hosts as Basil entered, was no longer surly
+or depressed. On the contrary, Gregory saw at once that he was in a
+state of intense excitement. There was a high colour upon his swarthy
+face, and the big black eyes were glittering.
+
+In fact, there was an unusual atmosphere of excitement about everyone
+present in the workshop, and insensibly, in the first few moments even,
+it began to communicate itself to the Englishman.
+
+"We were waiting for you to begin supper," said Brother Edouard in his
+twittering voice. "Afterwards we will tell you--what we have to tell."
+
+Basil was not hungry, but he sat down with the others. Both Deschamps
+and the Carnets ate quickly and said very little. It was as though they
+wished to be done with the meal, but when the first bottle of champagne
+was opened and the sweet wine creamed in the glasses Brother Charles
+rose and lifted his glass on high. "To the success of the greatest
+scheme that human genius ever evolved!" he piped. "To the ruin and
+overthrow of that vast and evil power whose slaves and victims we have
+been!" With a sudden gesture, he drained his glass and flung it on the
+floor, where it crashed into a hundred pieces.
+
+Then he stood there trembling, his bird-like face twisted into a
+grotesque mask of hatred, which was reflected by his brother.
+
+Gregory looked at one and the other with amazement and then turned to
+Deschamps. He saw that the latter's face was more deeply flushed than
+before, the whole expression was one of quivering eagerness and almost
+ferocious hope. Gregory leant back in his chair and very deliberately
+lit a cigarette.
+
+"I do not want to be unduly inquisitive," he said, in a quiet and
+measured voice, "but if one of you gentlemen would kindly give me the
+slightest inkling of what you are talking about, and why you are all so
+excited, then perhaps I shall feel a little less bewildered than I do at
+the moment."
+
+At this Deschamps broke into a torrent of words.
+
+"My friend," he said, "our troubles are at an end! As Monsieur Charles
+has just said, one of the most stupendous schemes that has ever entered
+the human brain has come to me. By its means we shall all become
+fabulously wealthy in a short time if all goes well."
+
+Basil was staring at his friend, wondering whether he had taken leave of
+his senses, when Charles Carnet interposed. "We shall not _all_ become
+wealthy," he said. "Edouard and I have enough; we want no more. You will
+become wealthy, and we shall have our revenge."
+
+"I am listening," said Gregory rather stolidly.
+
+As if by common consent the other three rose from the table. "Come to
+the fire," Deschamps said, speaking now in a low voice, "and you shall
+hear everything."
+
+They sat round the fire very close together, and, looking round as if to
+be quite certain that there was no one lurking in the recesses of the
+workshop, Deschamps began:
+
+"_Mon ami_," he said, putting his hand upon Basil's arm, "we are going
+to take a journey, you and I."
+
+"A journey?" Gregory said.
+
+"To Monte Carlo," Deschamps replied.
+
+Then there was a silence; Basil felt his brain whirling. "What do you
+mean?" he said at length.
+
+"I mean this," Deschamps answered, "that fortune is within our grip at
+last, that we can now make as much money as we like, enough to conduct
+all our experiments and get out perfect models of our invention to place
+before the world. I will explain."
+
+He threw away the cigarette which he had been smoking and began to
+outline a plan so novel, a conspiracy so absolutely without precedent in
+the history of the world, that his three listeners remained spell-bound.
+
+"Chance, and chance alone," he began, "has placed the opportunity for
+the most sensational coup of modern times in our hands. In the first
+place, chance--the Spirit of Fortune, or what you will--led us to this
+room in which we are sitting. The Messieurs Carnet, as you know, have
+for years been employed in making roulette wheels for the Casino at
+Monte Carlo. As you have also heard, they have resolved to give up their
+occupation. The tragedy which has saddened their lives has been directly
+due to the existence of the great gambling establishment. Both our
+friends would give anything to be revenged upon the organisation which
+has wrecked their hopes, and owing to the existence of which their so
+beloved nephew met his untimely death."
+
+A low mutter of assent broke from both the little Frenchmen.
+
+"Very well, then," Deschamps continued, "you have wondered at my
+abstraction during the last twenty-four hours. I could not speak to you.
+I was absorbed. I hardly heard anything you said. The whole forces of my
+intellect were focussed upon one thought, one aim. The germ of an idea
+came to me. It was like a lightning flash, illuminating with sudden
+splendour the dark skies of night. The flash came and went, but the germ
+of the idea remained behind. Since then I have been working unceasingly
+at it, and now I believe I have it perfected. You, yourself, my dear
+friend, will be able to seize on any flaw, to improve upon my original
+idea. Very well, then; I came to our friends here, and told them that I
+believed I could, if I would, deal the Administration of Monte Carlo an
+almost fatal blow. It was, I explained to them, by means of science, and
+more especially of your and my new invention, that this could be done. I
+pointed out to them that it would require their co-operation. I think I
+may say"--here he looked interrogatively at the Carnets--"that directly
+I made my proposal they agreed."
+
+"We welcomed it with joy," said Brother Edouard instantly. "To us also
+it came as a lightning flash, illuminating the dark and showing the word
+'Revenge' in letters of fire upon the horizon!"
+
+Basil leant forward, deeply interested. As yet he had not the slightest
+idea of what was coming. Nevertheless, he was so impressed by Deschamps'
+firm and confident manner that hope was beginning to rise high within
+him, and an excitement to which he had been a stranger for many days,
+began to flow over him like a tide.
+
+Moreover, he knew Deschamps so well that he was certain that this was
+no vision. The Frenchman was a Southerner, it is true, given to
+pictorial flights of fancy in many ways. But when he began to speak of
+any matter connected with science or their invention, he never made the
+slightest overstatement. Science was his life and his religion.
+
+"As yet," Deschamps said, "Monsieur Edouard and Monsieur Charles know
+nothing of the actual means I propose to employ. I am going to divulge
+my plan in such a way that they, knowing nothing of electricity and its
+powers, will be able to understand my project in every detail. I shall
+not use any technicalities beyond what are absolutely necessary. But
+you, _mon ami_, will understand everything from the scientific point of
+view, and you will see how perfectly feasible and likely of success is
+what I propose to do."
+
+He paused, and going to the table, poured out a little water into a
+glass and drank it off. He did not sit down again, but walked up and
+down a measured beat of four yards, talking with intense earnestness.
+
+"You know, gentlemen," he said to the two wood-carvers, "what wireless
+telegraphy means?"
+
+"But, yes," said Brother Charles, "have they not just installed the
+Marconi system in the Eiffel Tower? Of course, we know, but not, I
+think, more than any ordinary member of the public."
+
+"Very well," said Deschamps. "Now I must tell you that Monsieur Gregory
+here and myself have for years been at work upon a system of
+transmitting messages without wires, which, we believe, and indeed are
+certain, surpasses the invention of Signor Marconi as a modern
+battleship surpasses an ancient wooden frigate. It is this system of
+ours that I propose to employ in the secret war against the
+Administration at Monte Carlo. By its means we shall be able to win an
+enormous sum of money at roulette. We shall be able to win exactly how
+much, and when, we please. Every detail is perfectly clear in my mind,
+and discovery is almost impossible with the precautions I shall take.
+You must remember that the capital of Monte Carlo is unlimited. You
+know nothing of the place, Basil?"
+
+Gregory shook his head.
+
+"Then, pardon a short digression," Deschamps continued, looking at the
+Carnets. "The gambling rooms of Monte Carlo pay the Prince of Monaco a
+yearly subsidy of eighty thousand pounds for permission to carry on
+their business in his territory. There are no rates and taxes in Monte
+Carlo, the Casino pays them all. Education is free. The Casino itself is
+a glittering white palace upon the edge of the Mediterranean, erected at
+an enormous cost, and decorated with the most lavish splendour. Few
+kings have such vast halls and salons in their palaces as those in the
+temple of the Goddess of Chance. The Casino is free to all the world,
+though, of course, the Administration reserves the right of declining
+admission. The gardens that surround this palace are the most beautiful
+in the world. Sometimes, as if by touch of an enchanter's wand, the
+thousand gardeners steal out in the night, and in the morning vast
+parterres of flowers, which had been all red and gold as the sun sank,
+are changed to blue and white. In addition to this--and the expenses of
+the Principality are incalculable--the company pays a revenue to its
+shareholders of over twenty-five million francs!"
+
+Basil had been listening with absorbed interest. He started now.
+"Twenty-five million francs!" he said, in an awed voice. "Clear profit
+after those colossal expenses? A million English pounds!"
+
+"Exactly," Deschamps returned, "and I have told you this so that you can
+see that the resources of the company are practically unlimited. The
+amount of their funds no one knows, but many a national bank could not
+equal it. So you see, the authorities are pledged for the sake of their
+own continuance to pay any player his winnings, however enormous they
+may be. There have been several cases of players quite recently winning
+sums of two and a half million francs--a hundred thousand pounds of your
+English money. But we"--here his voice for the first time began to
+tremble with excitement--"we can win whatever we please! And now to the
+way in which it is to be done."
+
+Deschamps stopped short in his walk up and down. He leant against the
+work-table upon which were the remains of the supper.
+
+The eyes of the other three were fixed upon him with an intense regard.
+
+"You understand," he said to Basil, "the principle of roulette, do you
+not?"
+
+"Roughly," Basil answered; "the little ivory ball about the size of a
+large marble is spun as you spun it the other night, and falls into a
+numbered slot. The people who have placed their money upon a square of
+the table with a number corresponding to that of the slot into which the
+ball falls are the winners of varying amounts."
+
+"That is more or less it," Deschamps replied. "I am not concerned at the
+moment with anything but the bare mechanical operation. The whirling of
+the wheel at the bottom, the opposite course of the ball, and the
+triangular silver stars which break it, all make it a pure matter of
+chance into which apartment upon the wheel the ball is going to fall. It
+is obvious, therefore, that if by some means the player could determine
+into which slot the ball is to fall, he would have the bank at his
+mercy."
+
+"Precisely," Basil said.
+
+"Very well, then. It is a means by which this may be attained that I
+have discovered. Of course, you, as an electrical engineer, can easily
+see that a roulette wheel might easily be constructed by the bank by
+which it could control the falling of the ball and so prevent players
+who had backed a particular number from winning. This has often been
+done by dishonest people who run private gambling hells. Upon the
+surface everything appears all right, but, of course, an expert
+examination would very speedily result in the discovery of the secret
+mechanism--generally, by the way, electrical. Wires can be hidden in the
+leg of the table upon which the wheel stands, and controlled by the foot
+of the croupier who spins it. But never before--and I wish you to keep
+this point most carefully in mind--has it been possible for the player
+to control the wheel in action without the connivance of the croupier or
+the bank. Now listen." He began to address himself now more particularly
+to the Carnet Freres.
+
+"The first detail in my plan is that the little ivory ball, while
+remaining to all appearance a solid ball of ivory, is not really so. It
+will contain a core or heart of steel. The very finest workmanship alone
+could accomplish this without any possibility of detection. I assume--am
+I right in assuming?--that our friends, Messieurs Charles and Edouard,
+could make a ball or balls of this description."
+
+The two little men, who had been listening with rigid attention, spoke
+to one another rapidly for a moment or two, using technical terms which
+the others could not understand.
+
+Then Brother Charles looked up. "We can do it," he said proudly. "It
+will be difficult, very difficult. First of all, there is the weight to
+be considered, for the ball must not exceed a normal weight. Then there
+must be a special quality of ivory, and work in turning and hollowing so
+extraordinarily fine and delicate that perhaps only one of the Indian or
+Chinese carvers could do it so that the operation showed no trace. I am
+certain that no one in France but myself and my brother are capable of
+this feat, but you may rest content--it is not beyond our powers!"
+
+The little man concluded with quiet pride, and Deschamps showed
+unmistakable relief.
+
+"I was certain of it," he said, "but, naturally, I had some little
+anxiety. Everything, in the first instance, depends upon that."
+
+"We then have our prepared ball or balls--for a whole set must be made.
+The next point is the peculiar construction of the rotating wheel upon
+which the slots are fixed. Then, you, Basil, will immediately
+understand, but I must explain it carefully to our friends, they will
+have to work under my instructions, and with material which I supply.
+The prepared wheel will be constructed quite differently from the
+ordinary ones, though it will look exactly the same, when painted with
+the numbers. Each slot, messieurs, will be constructed of metal varying
+very slightly in composition. To all outward appearance the metal will
+be just the ordinary tin amalgam generally employed. In reality, as far
+as the metal goes, each slot will have, so to speak, a personality of
+its own--a certain power of receptivity of certain influences which no
+other slot has."
+
+He stopped for a moment, and suddenly Basil Gregory rose from his
+chair, and gave a great shout of excitement. A glimmering, a faint
+glimmering, of the stupendous idea had come to him, and he trembled all
+over with excitement.
+
+The two little men were no less excited than he, though as yet they were
+in the dark.
+
+Deschamps made a movement with his hand, Basil sat down again, and the
+Frenchman went on speaking.
+
+"My colleague here," he said, "is already beginning to grasp the idea.
+In a very few more words you will understand it also. I mentioned
+wireless telegraphy to you just now. I also told you that my friend and
+I had improved enormously upon the present system, though, owing to lack
+of money, we have never been able as yet to place our invention upon the
+market or get it recognised, while if we took it to quarters where it
+would be appreciated and understood, we should be robbed of nearly all
+the profits, as has happened with many another inventor.
+
+"Well, then, messieurs, the invention of my friend and myself--I speak
+purposely in non-technical terms--makes it possible for the mysterious
+electrical power which sends messages over thousands of miles of
+space--the Hertzian waves in short--to penetrate through any amount of
+material resistance in the form of the walls of buildings, or barriers
+of any kind. Marconi has already accomplished something of this; we have
+perfected it. Now, in wireless telegraphy it is already possible to
+'tune' sets of instruments so that the message sent at one end of the
+transmitter will only be received at the other by a similarly tuned
+receiver, this preventing the message being picked up by other receivers
+as it flies through space. I am about to apply this principle, greatly
+facilitated by our invention, to the slots of the roulette wheel. Each
+slot will be tuned separately from its fellow. Having got thus far, let
+me explain to you that, by means of the Hertzian waves, the operator
+will be able to turn a slot into a temporary magnet of low power at any
+moment he desires. That is to say, that when the prepared wheel is being
+used upon the tables at Monte Carlo, an operator with his instrument may
+be three or four hundred yards away in the upper room of a neighbouring
+hotel, or, if necessary, two miles away up upon the mountains of the
+Maritime Alps, and will be able to turn any slot he desires into a
+magnet for just as long a period as he wishes it to remain so. There
+will be no visible connection between the distant operator and the
+wheel. It is absolutely impossible that the people clustered round the
+wheel can know what is going on. The great secret, silent power of
+electricity will be at work, and yet entirely unsuspected and unknown."
+
+He paused again, and triumph dawned upon his face as he saw that now not
+only did Basil Gregory thoroughly understand the plan, but that the
+brothers Carnet also had grasped the idea. Their faces were blazing with
+amazement, their bodies tense and rigid, there was no sound in the
+workshop but that of his own voice.
+
+"The rest is easy to explain," he said. "If, say, at a given moment, the
+slot painted seven is converted into a low-power magnet directly the
+wheel begins to revolve, then, as a natural consequence, as soon as the
+velocity of the ball begins to die away, and the attractive power of the
+magnet, which slot number seven has become, proves greater than the
+impelling force of the ball, the ball which has a steel core will fall
+into slot number seven.
+
+"You will observe, then, that the unseen operator any distance from the
+Casino is absolute master of the play at the particular table where the
+prepared wheel is.
+
+"His confederate will play at this table. He and the operator will carry
+watches that are absolutely and utterly reliable, and which are
+synchronised to a hundredth second of time. A course of play is
+determined on. A sequence of certain numbers is agreed upon between the
+two. Let us say that the player enters the rooms at twelve o'clock in
+the morning and secures his place at the special table. At ten minutes
+past twelve to the instant it is agreed that number seven, let us say,
+is to receive the force of the Hertzian waves for a certain definite
+period. As a usual thing, so rapid is the paying out and gathering in of
+money at the tables at Monte Carlo, the wheel is spun every minute and a
+half. Of course, if the stakes are very high, or if there is a dispute,
+a coup may take a little longer. That, however, is a fair working
+average. For a little less than a minute and a half, then, from the time
+agreed upon, i.e., ten minutes past twelve, seven will remain a magnet.
+For that particular spin seven must infallibly prove the winner. The
+thing can be repeated over and over again."
+
+"It is marvellous!" the brothers shouted out in chorus. "It will be
+impossible to detect. Monsieur, you are the greatest mechanical genius
+the world has ever seen!"
+
+It was a great moment for Emile Deschamps. All the theatrical instincts
+so deeply implanted within him were gratified. To watch the faces of his
+audience, to see the dawn of understanding and admiration as he talked,
+had been to him like cool water to one in the desert.
+
+He stood still now, one hand upon his heart, and bowed. He had no
+thought of mockery, the gesture was perfectly spontaneous and sincere.
+He turned to Basil.
+
+"And you, my friend, what do you think of it?" he asked.
+
+Basil started. He had been thinking furiously, and the question came
+unexpectedly.
+
+"It is, of course, extremely brilliant," he said. "Naturally I can see
+that even more readily than our friends here. I don't believe any brain
+but yours, Emile, would ever have thought of it. Properly worked, and
+there are a good many details I should like to discuss with you, it's
+almost certain the scheme will succeed. But----"
+
+"Ah," Deschamps burst in, "the usual English reservation! The invariable
+'but' of caution! What is it now, you cold-blooded islander?"
+
+"Oh, it is not caution," Basil answered. "Haven't I just told you that
+the thing must succeed with a few modifications upon your original idea?
+It is the morality of the thing I am thinking of."
+
+Deschamps had sat down. He jumped up now like a Jack-in-the-box.
+"_Tiens!_" he cried. "Morality? Morality?"
+
+"I thought you had forgotten the meaning of the word," Basil answered
+dryly. "It seems to me--I only offer the opinion for what it is
+worth--that while this little plan is about as alluring a proposition as
+I ever heard, one of the most elementary problems of life has been quite
+lost sight of. We are going to steal--to put it quite frankly. It is an
+iridium-pointed, hot-pressed, wire-wove, jewelled-in-every-hole sort of
+steal, I know, but it is a steal all the same, isn't it? I am open to
+conviction, of course, and, by the way, if anything goes wrong,
+conviction is just what will occur. We have a little poem in England
+which sums up the question in a nutshell--
+
+
+     He who prigs what isn't his'n,
+     When he's cotched will go to prison;
+
+
+or, to put it in simpler form still, 'the penalty for abstracting quids
+by electricity will be quod'--you are a Latin scholar, I believe,
+Emile?"
+
+The Frenchman made an impatient and angry gesture of his hands.
+
+"There is no time for _blague_," he said, "with your quids and your
+quods. I know nothing of your piggish English play upon words. Of
+course, if it is the fear of discovery that deters you, and the
+possibilities of arrest, well----"
+
+He did not conclude, but shrugged his shoulders, and puffed out his lips
+with a peculiarly French contempt.
+
+Basil was quite unmoved. "It is not that," he said, "as you know very
+well, Emile. I would risk anything upon any chance. Our lives at the
+present moment are very like two puddings in a fog. Prison could not be
+much worse. But I do not quite see how one is going to reconcile this
+marvellously ingenious plan of yours with ordinary morals. There have
+been lots of times when you and I have wanted a bottle of wine or a
+packet of cigarettes very badly, and hadn't the money to pay for them.
+If I had proposed to you to take a bottle of chambertin while the
+wine-merchant was not looking--well!"
+
+The two little Frenchmen had been listening with keen attention to this
+dialogue. Basil's English irony had been lost upon them, but they
+understood the main lines of his objections well enough.
+
+It was Brother Edouard who came to the rescue.
+
+"Permit me to say a word," he interrupted in his gentle, high-pitched
+voice. "The cases of robbing a wine-merchant and the Administration of
+Monte Carlo have not the slightest analogy. Your premises are false,
+Monsieur Gregoire. This organisation at Monte Carlo is simply a soulless
+machine for the making of money by exploiting one of the baser passions
+of men. I and my brother--I freely confess it--have been parts of that
+machine for years. But you know the sad event"--his voice trembled a
+little--"which opened our eyes. We said to each other, 'If our hopes in
+life have all been utterly swept away in an instant by the Casino at
+Monte Carlo, how many other homes have been ruined, young lives
+sacrificed, prospects blighted?' A soldier who assists to exterminate,
+or, at any rate, to harass and injure a dangerous and unfriendly tribe
+of savages is generally looked upon as doing a fine and meritorious
+thing. Nor does he disdain to take the pay of his country for so doing.
+You and Monsieur Deschamps will be in exactly the same case. You will be
+seriously injuring the Casino. It may be that when the idea is developed
+roulette will become impossible, though that is only a side issue, and
+also--here you must listen to me carefully--you are not proposing to
+obtain a large sum of money for the mere gratification of low
+pleasures, to acquire a soulless ease and comfort. You have invented
+something which will be of the highest benefit to mankind. Want of
+fortune alone prevents you conferring that benefit upon the world. As
+inventors, it is your duty--at least, so it appears to me--to take
+advantage of the opportunity which the genius of Monsieur Deschamps has
+provided. No one will be hurt except people who can well afford to
+suffer."
+
+His voice had gathered strength as he went on, and as he concluded there
+was an almost prophetic note in it, a gravity and seriousness of
+conviction which had an instant effect upon Basil Gregory's wavering
+mind.
+
+He thought for a minute, and then looked up.
+
+"So be it," he said. "You have convinced me, though I will say I was
+ready enough to be convinced. We will try it. Like all other gamblers,
+we will risk everything upon a single throw."
+
+As if by common consent, they all rose to their feet.
+
+"And now," said Brother Charles, who had hitherto been silent, "let us
+form ourselves into a committee of ways and means."
+
+Deschamps' face grew pale. "_Mon Dieu!_" he cried, "fool that I am! I
+have been carried away by the splendour of the prospect, and have
+forgotten the most essential fact of all. Our friends here"--he was
+speaking to Basil--"can prepare the wheel with my assistance. But how
+about the apparatus, which, as you know, is costly enough for ordinary
+purposes? The particular apparatus I shall want with all our own
+modifications and specialities will cost about five thousand francs. And
+then there is the getting to Monte Carlo, the putting up at an expensive
+hotel to avoid suspicion--for the Administration has its spies and
+detectives everywhere. It may be necessary to bribe, a thousand
+emergencies may occur, which only money can overcome."
+
+He dived one hand into the pocket of his trousers, and withdrew four
+coins. He flung them on the floor with a curse.
+
+"Three francs fifty!" he cried; "three francs fifty! Basil, I am a fool
+and a dreamer! You can preserve your morality unspotted, after all!"
+
+Basil looked blankly at his friend, who was now limp with an almost
+ferocious dejection and self-contempt. He nodded slowly.
+
+"Same old thing," he said; "we ought to have expected it. We are
+stumped, old chap, for want of three or four hundred pounds."
+
+An odd hissing noise, like the escape of steam from a very small pipe,
+recalled him to his surroundings. The brothers Carnet were regarding the
+two young men with pity. "Ah!" said Brother Charles, almost wringing his
+hands, "What fools these men of genius are, Edouard! Messieurs!
+Messieurs! my brother and I will, of course, provide the funds. Haven't
+we already told you that we are quite well-to-do for people in our
+position? You will draw on us for any money you may require. Nor must
+you spare the francs. This is a great affair, conduct it greatly, and
+you will earn our undying gratitude."
+
+Once more the volatile Deschamps was transformed from limp dejection to
+painful excitability. He leapt at both the little men, and embraced each
+in turn. He called down blessings upon their heads, and then, in an
+instant, assumed the manner of a calm business-like man.
+
+He took a fountain-pen and an envelope from his pocket.
+
+"You will, of course, take whatever proportion of our winnings you think
+fit, gentlemen," he said, "and as far as the amount of the winnings is
+concerned, you have only to say the word. It will be as well to make a
+note of the terms at once, and we will have a proper agreement drawn
+out."
+
+The Carnets looked at Basil Gregory as much as to say, "What a hopeless
+person this Southerner is!" Basil, far quicker than Deschamps to
+understand the odd little men, changed the subject at once. "Never mind
+about that now, Emile," he said. "Our friends have very kindly offered
+to advance the money necessary for the great coup. We had now better go
+into other details, so as not to lose time. Financial affairs can be
+arranged later."
+
+Deschamps nodded. "Very well, then," he said, "let us recapitulate what
+is absolutely necessary to be done, immediately. In the first place, you
+and I must give up our positions at the Societe Generale."
+
+Basil started at this. "Is that really necessary?" he asked. "Couldn't
+we get leave?"
+
+Deschamps shook his head. "I feel almost sure they won't give us leave,"
+he said. "We are only members of the rank and file, remember. But
+'nothing venture, nothing have,'--we must resign."
+
+"Very well," Basil replied, "we will give them notice to-morrow." But as
+he said it he had a curious heart-pang as he thought of Ethel, and that,
+if anything went wrong, he must resign for ever any hopes of calling her
+his own.
+
+"Now, about experiments and the construction of the apparatus,"
+Deschamps continued. "We must have a workshop, to begin with."
+
+"This is at your service," the brothers said eagerly.
+
+Deschamps bowed. "A thousand thanks," he said. "Nothing could be better
+fitted for the purpose. Here we shall be absolutely secret. You have a
+forge and many appliances which will be useful. To-morrow I must buy
+other machinery and certain tools. Fortunately you have the electric
+light here, and I can tap one of the plugs for all the current that I
+shall require for experimental purposes."
+
+Basil snapped his fingers as if an idea had just come to him. "By Jove,
+Emile!" he said, "how on earth shall we manage at Monte Carlo? We cannot
+work with batteries. First of all, we could never get them into the
+hotel without being seen, and even if we did, we shouldn't have enough
+power."
+
+"You don't know the Principality," Emile answered. "All the hotels have
+the completest installation of electric light possible. It will be the
+simplest thing to tap one of the mains and connect it with our new
+portable transformer. We can get exactly what current we require."
+
+"Good," Basil said, realising how deeply his friend had gone into the
+technical side of the great coup.
+
+Edouard Carnet spoke. "If you will come here to-morrow at midday," he
+said, "having already resigned your posts at the Societe Generale, I
+will have drawn a sufficient sum of money from the bank to enable you to
+make all necessary purchases. Then we can go ahead as fast as we like."
+
+"But don't forget this, brother," Charles Carnet interposed, "our new
+wheels must be dispatched to Monaco. As a matter of fact, they are
+expecting them immediately, but a telegram saying that we require
+another fortnight will put that right. We have had to take a little
+extra time before now, during the past years. A fortnight, however, is
+as much grace as we shall be able to get and preserve our friendly
+relations with the Administration. Will you be able to do all that is
+necessary in the construction of the apparatus within a fortnight?"
+
+"It will be quick work," Deschamps replied, "but it can be done. My
+friend and myself can construct the necessary apparatus for sending the
+waves, and we can also, with your co-operation, prepare the wheel and
+tune the slots for the reception of the vibrations."
+
+Then Basil spoke. "Look here, Emile," he said, "a thought strikes me. Of
+course, I don't know anything about the Casino, and I have never been to
+the South of France, but won't it look strangely suspicious if we win
+day by day at the same table? Won't they change the wheel?"
+
+"That is exactly what they will do, monsieur," Edouard Carnet replied to
+him. "Of course, when a man wins a large sum at one table he always goes
+to the same table to play. It is his lucky table. But there was a case
+some years ago when a little syndicate of players--by means of the most
+careful calculations--noticed that the wheel of the table where they
+made their game had a slight bias. They traded on the fact for several
+days, and won an enormous sum of money. It was one of our wheels, but
+there must have been a flaw in the wood, or we had not allowed for the
+expansion of the metal, owing to the greater heat of the South. At any
+rate, as a result, the wheels have been constantly changed ever since."
+
+"Then, how can we carry out our plan?" Basil asked.
+
+"The wheels are not taken away entirely," Edouard went on; "they are
+simply changed from table to table. The prepared wheel will have some
+distinguishing mark by which you will know it. We must think that out;
+it must be some very slight thing--a knot in the wood, a mere scratch on
+the outside, would do."
+
+A dry little chuckle came from Brother Charles.
+
+"We are getting on! We are getting on!" he said, with a grotesque mirth.
+"My brother, what is to prevent us preparing three wheels? They should
+be 'tuned'--as Monsieur Deschamps calls it--exactly alike. Each will be
+marked in some way, so that our friends can distinguish them from the
+unprepared wheels. There are twelve roulette wheels in all used in the
+Salle des Jeux."
+
+"_Bien!_" Edouard replied; "your brain moves quickly. By this means our
+friends will be able to move from table to table as they wish."
+
+"And I would suggest," Deschamps broke in, "that we do not play for more
+than a week in all. In a week's time we shall be able to win an enormous
+sum of money, without unduly exciting suspicion. Great runs of luck, I
+have observed, generally last for about seven or eight days. If, as
+Monsieur Charles suggests, we move from table to table, a week should
+be sufficient. We can go away with enormous sums, and no one will be any
+the wiser."
+
+"And another thing," Edouard Carnet said, "which of you is going to be
+the actual operator of the telegraphic instrument, and which the player
+at the tables?"
+
+"Oh, I'd much better play," Deschamps answered, "and Basil work the
+instrument."
+
+Both the Carnets shook their heads at this.
+
+"No," they said together, "that will be unwise. Monsieur Gregoire is
+typically English. It is always best for a foreigner to make these great
+coups. Moreover, the luck of the English and the Americans is
+proverbial. Monsieur Gregoire must be thought an English millionaire. No
+one thinks it strange when a millionaire wins another million! But, to
+safeguard the future, it would be as well that monsieur were disguised."
+
+Basil shook his head. "Disguised!" he cried. "Oh, I don't like that idea
+at all!"
+
+"It is necessary," Edouard Carnet said firmly; "but all that you have to
+do, monsieur, is to shave off that blonde moustache, darken your skin a
+little, and wear pince-nez. It is only ordinary caution, after all.
+When you return with the spoils of war and grow your moustache again,
+nobody will ever connect you with the winner of millions upon the Cote
+d'Azur."
+
+"And I have another idea," twittered Brother Charles, his little face
+beaming with joy. "Monsieur Deschamps shall go to Monte Carlo as the
+valet of Monsieur Gregoire. It will all seem so natural--the assiduous
+valet, the heavy luggage, which the man-servant must guard! You see it?"
+
+The situation struck Basil as humorous. He threw back his head and
+laughed aloud. "Emile," he said.
+
+Deschamps entered into the spirit of the thing. "_Bien_, monsieur," he
+answered.
+
+"Sit down at the table and teach me the rules of the game of roulette!"
+
+
+
+
+PART II
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Two men sat alone in a first-class compartment of the Riviera
+train-de-luxe.
+
+The night before the most luxurious train in Europe had left the Gare de
+Lyon at Paris. The night had been bitterly cold, and as the vast machine
+swung out of the station all the suburbs of Paris and, indeed, the
+plains of mid-France, were seen through the dark windows of the
+corridors to be covered with a white sprinkling of snow.
+
+A special carriage was reserved for a Monsieur Montoyer and his valet,
+and the two persons mentioned upon the ticket had spent the whole night
+in the luxurious cabin, with its beds and little tables, talking
+earnestly.
+
+Monsieur Charles Edouard Montoyer was an athletic, burly looking young
+man, dressed in the height of French fashion, clean-shaved,
+dark-complexioned, and wearing gold-rimmed spectacles, which only
+partially concealed a pair of blue eyes which seemed oddly at variance
+with his otherwise Southern appearance. His hair also was a dead black,
+and in certain lights it had an almost metallic lustre.
+
+The valet presented no very extraordinary appearance, except that he
+seemed markedly intelligent and alert. His black hair was closely
+cropped to a large and well-shaped head. His complexion was of the true
+Southern swarthy tint, glowing out below the skin, as it were. He wore a
+small black moustache, and the long first finger of his right hand was
+deeply stained with the juice of cigarettes.
+
+Once, about an hour after the start, the valet went to the restaurant
+car, and brought back two bowls of soup, and a bottle of Pomard,
+explaining to the waiter who gave them that his master was very hungry
+and one tureen would be insufficient. But when the door of the
+sleeping-car was locked, the blinds looking on the corridor drawn down,
+the table set, and all the electric lights switched on, a spectator--had
+there been one there--would have seen with some surprise that master and
+man shared the meal equally. And perhaps he would have thought it a
+touching testimony of the theoretical equality of Republican France that
+master and man addressed each other by their Christian names.
+
+In short, the great enterprise was begun, Basil and Emile, their
+apparatus made, their plan of campaign concluded, were roaring and
+crashing through France to the fairy-like shores of the Mediterranean.
+
+It was now close upon nine o'clock in the morning. The blinds of the
+sleeping-car were still drawn upon the corridor side, but the two men
+were dressed. Their hand luggage was strapped and they were smoking
+cigarettes.
+
+"In a moment more, Basil," said Emile, his voice trembling with
+excitement, "in a moment more you shall have your first vision of the
+South! I would not let you look before and, indeed, as we went through
+Avignon it was too dark to see much, but Marseilles--my beloved native
+city--is the Gate of the South. You will see little of it, as within an
+hour we shall be pulling out again for the Cote d'Azur, but you will see
+something; you will at least breathe the enchanted air!"
+
+Deschamps' voice was most powerfully affected. For a moment he had
+forgotten the enterprise entirely. He was only consumed with an
+over-mastering eagerness that his dearest friend and partner should
+breathe with him that subtle, intoxicating air, and realise for the
+first time in his life what the South means.
+
+There was a long grinding of the brakes, and the train stood still.
+Emile drew up the blinds, opened the door into the corridor, and led
+Basil to the end of the car. Then they stepped down to the low platform.
+
+They had left Paris in sullen bitter winter weather. Here, early as it
+was, the sun was shining brilliantly in the cool, quiet station. Exactly
+facing them was a huge stall of flowers, masses of purple violets,
+delicate ivory-coloured roses from Grasse, the pale golden plumes of the
+mimosa.
+
+But the air! the air was the thing! So warm and sweet it was, it came
+upon them with such a veritable caress, it so bathed them with golden
+light and sweet odours, that tears started into Deschamps' eyes, and
+Basil forgot his disguise.
+
+"How wonderful! how wonderful!" he said in English, breathing like a man
+who had been stifled all his life.
+
+And that was their first glimpse of the enchanted country to which they
+had come.
+
+Through all the morning until mid-afternoon the train moved, slowly and
+sleepily now, through scenes of loveliness such as the Englishman, at
+any rate, had never dreamed of. Everywhere the Mediterranean gleamed
+like an immense sapphire, flecked here and there with white fire. The
+low cliffs of sandstone were crimson. The sky was an inverted bowl of
+glowing turquoise, and everywhere tall, feathery palms were silhouetted
+against it in brilliant green. And there were flowers, flowers
+everywhere! Every station with its familiar name was full of
+flowers--Grasse, Cannes, Nice, Villefranche--there were flowers
+everywhere; flowers, exotic trees, and great white hotels that gleamed
+jewel-like in terrace after terrace from the sea till they were lost in
+the high places of the Maritime Alps.
+
+And then--at last--Monaco, a few tunnels cut in the cliffs, and the
+long, low station of Monte Carlo at last!
+
+During the whole period of the slower journey along the seashore Basil
+Gregory's excitement had been gradually growing. He and Deschamps had
+talked but little, but both of them had been obsessed by the great idea
+that they were getting nearer and nearer to the world-famous theatre of
+their colossal enterprise.
+
+Monte Carlo! Monte Carlo! The words had beaten themselves into a rythm
+in Basil's brain, a rythm in tune with the regular pulsing of the
+engine.
+
+They were to stay at the Hotel Malmaison, for the brothers Carnet had
+insisted that the two young men should lack nothing, and that Basil
+should appear to be a person of great wealth and consequence. There was
+to be no hole-and-corner business about the great coup. Suspicion was to
+be averted by every possible means. "_Il fait aller en regal_," Brother
+Charles had insisted, and so it was to be. Rooms had been engaged in
+advance, a sitting-room and bedroom for Monsieur Charles Edouard
+Montoyer, and a bedroom for his valet. It had been stipulated, however,
+that the valet's bedroom should be at the very top storey of the hotel,
+as that personage suffered from asthma.
+
+The Malmaison was only some four hundred yards from the station, and in
+consequence some three hundred from the Casino. They drove there in the
+waiting omnibus, however, and at five o'clock were installed in their
+rooms.
+
+It was a little difficult to account for two large boxes among the
+luggage, of extraordinary heaviness, which were placed in the
+sitting-room of Monsieur Montoyer. But the ready Deschamps in his role
+of valet explained that monsieur was a great student, and always
+travelled with many books.
+
+"I go now, _mon ami_" Emile said, "to my own room. All your clothes are
+unpacked. I must not stay here too long at present. I shall have to meet
+all the other servants and gossip with them, but I will come at seven to
+assist you to dress, and then we can make our plans."
+
+Basil was left alone in the brightly furnished sitting-room. He looked
+down into a terraced garden, brilliant still with the declining rays of
+the sun. Somewhere near by a band of guitars was playing accompanied by
+voices as sweet and passionate as they.
+
+He strolled up and down the room thinking deeply. But it was not of the
+fairyland in which he found himself, it was not of the glories he was
+soon to witness, it was not even of the great hazard he was to try--the
+bold and reckless bid for fortune. It was of Ethel he was thinking.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+About ten o'clock in the morning of the day on which Basil Gregory and
+Emile Deschamps had arrived at Monte Carlo, another train had pulled
+into the long low station on the Mediterranean shore.
+
+This train was very different from the huge, luxurious machine that
+brought the adventurers to the City of Fortune earlier in the day. It
+was the ordinary slow train, the third class, not even a _rapide_, and
+only a few second-class carriages were included in its make-up.
+Moreover, it had taken two whole days, and nights in its journey from
+Paris, being everywhere shunted aside for the _rapides_ and _trains de
+luxe_ to pass through.
+
+From this train of poorer people two English ladies, quietly dressed,
+and pale and stained with travel under none too pleasant conditions, had
+descended.
+
+They were driven at once with their trunks to a modest _pension_ in the
+Rue Grimaldi in Monaco, and spent some hours in sleep.
+
+Ethel McMahon had told her lover in Paris that she had obtained a
+fortnight's leave of absence from her school, had saved a little money,
+and was about to take her mother to Switzerland for a change of air.
+
+Basil had accepted the statement implicitly, glad to hear that the girl
+he loved was to have a short respite from her labours, and, for his own
+part, finding that the proposed holiday would coincide with his own
+absence from Paris, he said nothing of his plans. So it had been
+arranged, and the two lovers were mutually ignorant of each other's
+purposes and without the slightest idea that they were bound for the
+same destination. Mrs. McMahon had absolutely refused to allow Ethel to
+communicate a word of their project to Gregory, and the girl was all the
+more ready because by now she was thoroughly infected with her mother's
+enthusiasm, and was absolutely convinced in her own mind that they were
+to gain a small fortune at the tables.
+
+How splendid it would be to come to Basil and to tell him that they
+could be married at once! That funds for the launching of the great
+invention were forthcoming, that all was to end as happily as some old
+song!
+
+About six o'clock Ethel went into her mother's room. The rest had
+refreshed her. Her eyes were glowing with excitement, and with her long
+hair falling over her dressing-gown she seemed the personification of
+radiant hope.
+
+"Now, what are we to do, mother?" she said excitedly. "How do you feel?"
+
+The older woman was seated in the one arm-chair the little bedroom of
+the _pension_ boasted, and was anxiously scrutinising a bundle of faded
+papers covered with figures and bold masculine handwriting.
+
+"It is certain, Ethel!" she said. "I have been going through your
+father's figures for the hundredth time. I am sure it can't fail. You
+know he only invented this particular system just before he died, and we
+never had an opportunity to try it properly."
+
+Ethel nodded. "I feel just as you do, mother, dear," she answered. "It
+_can't_ fail. But what are we to do? Are you thoroughly rested?"
+
+"I feel in better health," the old lady answered, "than I have felt for
+years. Excitement would keep me up if nothing else would, but, as it is,
+I have no trace of fatigue. What's the use of spending the evening in
+this dull _pension_ with these third-rate people, for such of the guests
+as I have seen are rather a seedy-looking lot, and Madame de Bonville is
+just the ordinary Southern Frenchwoman who keeps a place of this sort?
+No! We will dress, have dinner, and take a cab to the Casino. There will
+be no difficulty about obtaining our tickets for this evening. We shall
+have to renew them each day, until we have been here for some time--if,
+indeed, it is necessary to remain here. After a week or two they give
+you a ticket for a month, but I don't suppose we shall need that."
+
+"Then we are to begin to-night!" Ethel cried, a flush mounting in her
+cheeks and her voice ringing with anticipation.
+
+The elder lady smiled. "We will not begin the system to-night," she
+answered. "That, I do think, would be unwise. We will take a louis or
+two and get a place at one of the tables, if we can, and just see what
+happens. I want you to get accustomed to a scene which will seem
+extraordinarily strange to you. We will take it that we are merely
+reconnoitring this evening, and begin serious play upon the morrow.
+Dinner is at half-past seven, so go and prepare yourself, my child, and
+then come and help me."
+
+Ethel left the room and crossed the passage to her own, singing for
+sheer lightness of heart. Already the beauty of the South had caught
+hold of her, and such glimpses of it as she had seen only intensified
+her mood. In her innocence she had not the slightest misgiving. She
+would have laughed to scorn anyone who had told her that there was a
+chance of losing the little unexpected capital that had come to them
+from the lottery.
+
+Dinner at the _pension de Bonville_ was the ordinary polyglot affair. An
+English major--no regiment specified--some stolid Germans, three
+shrill-voiced American girls, and some nondescript and rather haggard
+looking young men made up the company. Doings at the Casino during the
+day were compared and discussed. The little cards, printed in red and
+black, which are provided by the Casino authorities for recording the
+play, and pricked each time the wheel is spun, were handed about, and in
+this atmosphere, so familiar to her in the past, old Mrs. McMahon seemed
+like a changed being. She talked with the rest, in English or fluent
+French; she was like some old war horse once more snuffling the breeze
+of battle, and Ethel was no less interested and entranced, though her
+knowledge of roulette--for none of the _pensionnaires_ seemed to indulge
+in the more expensive _trente-et-quarante_--was purely theoretical.
+
+After dinner the major gallantly offered to escort the ladies to the
+Casino and to obtain their tickets. Shortly afterwards, muffled in opera
+cloaks, for between eight and nine is often the coldest hour of the day
+on the Riviera, the three walked up the steep, winding way towards the
+Palace of Chance.
+
+A full moon hung in the sky; everywhere were brilliant illuminations;
+the air as it proved was not at all cold upon this night, but soft and
+odorous of flowers.
+
+The gardens of the Casino were like enchantment to Ethel McMahon. It was
+indeed a scene from the "Arabian Nights." The tall palms clicked faintly
+in the breeze with a sound like distant castanets. The electric lights
+shone down upon enormous beds of flowers which everywhere studded the
+lawns. Faint music was heard on every side, and gaudily painted and
+luxurious automobiles flitted noiselessly along the polished roadways.
+
+Here was the great Hotel de Paris, its long facade glowing with colour,
+full of the wealthiest people in the world, dining very differently from
+the way in which the major and his new friends had dined in the Rue
+Grimaldi. Beyond, on the other side of the square, were the gardens of
+the Metropole, and the glass Cafe de Paris at its side winked and
+glittered like a gigantic topaz.
+
+"That, my dear," said Mrs. McMahon, pointing to a modest looking
+restaurant in an arcade, "that is Ciro's."
+
+Ethel's sense of humour was tickled by the calm patronage of the
+information. She knew, of course, that she was looking upon the most
+famous restaurant in the whole world, but her mother's tone amused her.
+
+And then, in a moment, she had no thought but one.
+
+Before her was a magnificent building of white marble with many steps
+leading to a wide entrance, glistening against the background of dark
+sky, spangled with golden stars.
+
+Mrs. McMahon clutched her daughter's arm. "There!" she said, almost in
+an awed whisper. "Now you see it for the first time. That is the
+Casino!"
+
+For a moment all three were silent. The spirit of chance, the terrible
+fever of the gambler was in their blood, and even the tough old major,
+an _habitue_ of every gambling hell in Europe, shared for a moment the
+emotion of his companions as they surveyed the supreme Temple of Chance.
+
+They went up the steps, Ethel alert to everything she saw, and turned
+into a long office to the left, rather more like a small bank than
+anything else.
+
+Two or three civil, quickly glancing Frenchmen, in black frock coats,
+were standing in this room before the counter. Ethel was conscious of a
+quick all-embracing scrutiny from three pairs of dark eyes, she heard
+her name spoken in French by one of the officials, and shortly
+afterwards two purple cards, bearing the mystic words:
+
+
+     "_Cercle des Etrangers,_
+     _Valable pour un jour,_"
+
+
+and with their names written upon the back in thin clerkly script, were
+handed to them.
+
+From there, into a vestibule where cloaks were exchanged for metal discs
+with a number upon them, and then in their evening frocks, but still
+wearing their hats, the two ladies passed with their cavalier into the
+Atrium.
+
+The huge hall, with its galleries, marble columns and tesselated floor,
+its gleaming lights in the roof, and its little groups of people dotted
+here and there under the galleries or in the centre space, reminded
+Ethel of a dance she had once attended in England at the magnificent
+town hall of a great Northern city. Everyone was in evening dress,
+everyone talked animatedly, new arrivals kept constantly pouring in. But
+at one end of this enormous hall, where the huge marble pillars
+clustered more thickly, was a series of great swing doors of an abnormal
+height, doors which constantly opened noiselessly and closed again. And
+round the doors were innumerable officials in their long frock coats,
+standing there watching and waiting as the votaries of Chance pressed
+inwards to the very sanctum of the Temple.
+
+Mrs. McMahon nodded. "Come, Ethel," she said in a voice that was
+positively hoarse with excitement, "the rooms are in there; let us go."
+
+The two ladies walked up the long hall, presented their cards to an
+official who glanced at them and bowed, and then one of the great doors
+swung open and they entered. Although it was early yet, the rooms were
+fairly full.
+
+Ethel found herself in an enormous salon of great height, and with a
+polished parquet floor. It resembled nothing so much as an immense
+ball-room in some royal palace. The walls were covered by huge pictures
+let into the gilded panelling, separated from each other by pilaster
+after pilaster of gold. The ceilings, also, where electric lights
+glowed brilliantly, were painted, and the general effect was one of
+almost overpowering magnificence. Beyond this huge salon she saw, under
+an immense archway, there was another and even larger one crossing it at
+right angles, and beyond that still another. The size and splendour of
+the place made her catch her breath and dazzled her eyes. "How
+wonderful!" she whispered to her mother.
+
+Her next impression was that she was in some church! Despite the
+gorgeous decoration certainly not in the least ecclesiastical, the size
+and shape, the curious hush and silence that pervaded everything, helped
+the impression. There was only the very lowest murmur of conversation
+perceptible. Women in astonishingly gorgeous toilets, with gold purses
+hanging from their wrists by jewel-studded chains, moved slowly up and
+down the parquet floor with a rustling of skirts. The air was full of
+mingled perfume and suggested that odour of incense in a cathedral.
+
+As all these impressions crowded into her mind, the girl's eyes became
+more used to the surroundings, and she saw, at intervals under the high
+dome-like roof, long tables were set, each one as long as two billiard
+tables. There were four of them in this first salon, and many more
+stretched away in the vista of brilliance. The air was quite clear,
+nobody was smoking, and she could see everything very distinctly.
+
+Around each table was a thick cluster of people, men and women, almost
+entirely hiding it from view.
+
+She turned to the table nearest her.
+
+Around it, without any intervals, people were sitting in chairs. Behind
+them stood other people, at some tables two deep. Above the tables were
+suspended huge lamps with green shades--like the lights over a billiard
+table, though not so brilliant.
+
+"Why, they are oil lamps!" Ethel said in a low voice to her mother. "How
+strange and antiquated!"
+
+Mrs. McMahon smiled.
+
+"If they had electric lights immediately over the tables," she said, "or
+even gas, some of the gangs of bad characters who infest Monte Carlo
+would find means to cut the pipes or wires, and in the confusion anybody
+could take what money he pleased." She clutched her daughter's arm
+tightly. "Child," she said, in an impressive voice, "at any one of these
+tables at the present moment, lying about, unprotected, in notes and
+gold, there is at least fifty thousand pounds!"
+
+At that moment the major drew their attention to the fact that at a
+table immediately ahead of them there was a little stir and movement.
+
+A very tall and handsome young man had risen from his chair. His face
+was a little flushed and his eyes sparkled, while he tried in vain to
+conceal the smile of pleasure and excitement upon his lips. Several of
+the other people at this table, who all appeared to know him, rose also
+and began to congratulate him in low voices.
+
+"That is the Archduke Theodore," the major said in a husky whisper. "He
+is a cousin of the Tsar. For the last week he has been winning enormous
+sums, and apparently he has done so again to-night. His pockets are
+simply bulging with notes!"
+
+Mrs. McMahon looked significantly at Ethel. Then she saw her chance.
+"Come," she said, "we can sit down at this table. This is a very
+fortunate chance." They went to the table and found two chairs
+unoccupied, slipping into them quickly in the momentary diversion
+created by the Archduke's success, and for the first time Ethel McMahon
+sat actually a guest of the unknown goddess of Fortune, and about to woo
+her.
+
+To the girl's unaccustomed eyes the scene was bewilderingly strange. The
+long expanse of green baize cloth stretched away on either side of her.
+It was marked with numbered squares and triangles, while at one end were
+two huge diamonds of red and black in either corner. She faced a row of
+people, men and women in correct evening costume, save that the women,
+like herself, wore the large hats which are _de rigueur_ in the Casino.
+Jewels gleamed bewilderingly almost everywhere. Exactly opposite her was
+a woman who was simply plastered with diamonds, and yet next this
+gorgeous vision with the painted face and laughing eyes, with a king's
+ransom round her throat and in her hair, sat an elderly yellow-faced
+woman in a black dress and without a single ornament--more quietly and
+even shabbily dressed than Mrs. McMahon herself. There were two
+fresh-faced English boys, who looked like soldiers, there was an
+enormous black-bearded Bulgarian, with eyes like black velvet and hands
+like fat claws.
+
+And all these people, on the green baize before them, had wads of notes
+or piles of gold, save only the old lady, before whom were only a few
+five-franc pieces--the minimum stake allowed at Monte Carlo.
+
+And on the numbers themselves money was already beginning to be placed
+from every part of the table. Sometimes the people pushed it themselves
+on the chosen numbers, sometimes, when they were too far away, they
+gave it to one of the silent croupiers who sat round among the
+people and pushed the coins to the destined spot with their long
+india-rubber-tipped rakes.
+
+Dividing the long table in the centre was the wheel itself, and the
+croupier in charge of it was already fingering the ivory ball. Behind
+him, on a higher seat, sat the official in charge of all the others
+engaged at this table, and from his lips came the occasional croak of
+the famous "_Faites vos jeux, messieurs: faites vos jeux_."
+
+Ethel had three golden louis in her purse. It was all the money that
+they had brought with them.
+
+Her mother had told her that beginners nearly always won the first time
+they played--a very common superstition among gamblers, and one which,
+for some reason or other, seems to be amply justified.
+
+"What shall I do, mother?"
+
+"Do whatever you like," Mrs. McMahon answered quickly. "I mustn't
+influence you or it will spoil the luck."
+
+Ethel hesitated, and as she did so the croupier swung the capstan and
+spun the ball.
+
+A low, humming whirr broke the silence.
+
+"Quick! quick!" whispered Mrs. McMahon, "make your stake or it will be
+too late."
+
+Hardly knowing what she did, Ethel pushed her three louis on to the
+green cloth, and as she did so the ball began to rattle on the
+diamond-shaped pieces of silver at the side of the bowl, and the
+croupier called out sharply, "_Rien ne va plus_," announcing that no
+more stakes could be put upon the table.
+
+Ethel had pushed her three golden louis exactly upon the edge of the
+line which divided six numbers, from 13 to 18, unconsciously played what
+is called a _transversale simple_.
+
+If any of these six numbers turned up she would win five times her
+original stake. And now--it all passed in a few seconds--the ball
+was rattling among the compartments, clicking like a pair of
+castanets. There was a final click as it fell into the slot, the
+croupier put out his finger and stopped the capstan, announcing the
+number--"_Rouge--dix-huit!_"
+
+Red had turned up, but with that Ethel had no concern as she had not
+backed the colour, but 18 had won, though for a moment she did not
+realise it.
+
+Then followed what to her was an extraordinary scene. The long rakes of
+the croupiers shot out from every part of the table, threading their way
+in and out among the masses of gold, silver and bank notes with
+extraordinary rapidity and the most delicate manipulation.
+
+A small fortune was swiftly swept away into the bank until the table
+was comparatively bare. It was all done with the precision of a machine,
+without a single mistake, and hardly was it completed when the stakes of
+those who had won were being added to in a golden shower.
+
+It takes a croupier at Monte Carlo a whole year to learn his business,
+but when he has learnt it no juggler upon the stage can provide a more
+startling exhibition. Coins flew from rapidly moving hands in a
+continuous stream, as if liquid gold was being squirted from a hose. No
+single coin rolled off its appointed square, but fell flat and
+motionless within an inch of the stake at which it was aimed. And now
+the rakes were pushing money towards the fortunate, not gathering it in
+any more, and, almost ere eager or indifferent hands had gathered up
+what Fortune had sent them, stakes were again being spread over the
+board for the next coup. To Ethel, who had not in the least known what
+had happened, there suddenly came a shower of gold falling just before
+her upon her original three louis.
+
+She stared at it bewildered, and the big Bulgarian opposite smiled at
+her ignorance.
+
+Not so Mrs. McMahon. "That is yours, Ethel," she said; "that is yours.
+You've won, after all." And as if in a dream the girl drew the
+glittering pile towards her. Fifteen louis, and her own three coins back
+again! Fifteen louis! More than thirteen English pounds--come to her as
+if by magic in less than a minute; her own, her very own to do as she
+liked with.
+
+"I can't believe it!" she whispered to her mother. "It can't be
+true--all this--more than a quarter's salary in a minute!"
+
+Old Mrs. McMahon was trembling with excitement, but there was triumph in
+her voice.
+
+"My dear," she said, in those very tones of calm superiority which she
+had used when the lottery ticket had at last turned up trumps, "this is
+nothing. What did I tell you!"
+
+"What shall I do now?" was Ethel's only answer. "Perhaps it would be
+better to do nothing."
+
+Mrs. McMahon caught at the word with the true gambler's instinct. "My
+dear," she said, "put one of those louis upon zero."
+
+There was a croupier three or four seats away from the girl. She leant
+forward, being now a little more accustomed to what she was doing,
+"_Zero, s'il vous plait, monsieur_," she said, tossing the coin to him.
+
+"_En plein, mademoiselle?_" he asked.
+
+Ethel turned to her mother. "What does he mean?" she said. Mrs. McMahon
+interposed. "_Oui, en plein_," she replied to the man. "You see, Ethel,
+it is rather unusual to stake a coin upon a single number, because you
+have thirty-five chances against you. Most people do what you did just
+now--cover several numbers and be content with smaller winnings. But you
+said 'nothing,' and it may be an omen."
+
+Again the ball spun, and now, in full consciousness of what was
+happening, Ethel knew excitement so fierce and keen, so utterly
+overpowering and absorbing, that it burned within her like a flame, and
+frightened her by its intensity.
+
+Her coin was the only one upon zero, which is the bank's number, for
+when it turns up all the stakes upon the board are taken by the bank,
+except those placed upon red or black, or the other even chances.
+
+Dame Fortune was very kind to-night, for with a slight emphasis the
+croupier at the wheel called out "Zero," and several people within her
+vicinity turned to look with envy or amusement, as the case might be, at
+the beautiful girl who had alone staked upon the big white "O."
+
+They paid her in notes this time, and Mrs. McMahon leant back in her
+chair with a gasp. "Fool! Fool that I was," she whispered, her hands
+clasping and unclasping themselves. "You had the money; you might have
+put on the maximum of nine louis, and you would have won, my dear, you
+would have won, and you would have won 6,300 francs--L252!"
+
+"But, mother," Ethel whispered back, "I have won seven hundred francs
+already, and three hundred with the first spin, that is a thousand
+francs--almost my year's salary at the school!"
+
+"You have been very fortunate" said the old lady. "And now let us go."
+
+"Let us go, mother? No, look; they are beginning to spin again. Let me
+try once more?"
+
+Mrs. McMahon gathered up the gold and crisp notes of the Bank of France
+and placed them in her chain purse.
+
+"My dear," she replied, "I am almost as keen as you are to go on, but
+let us be content with our great good fortune. We shall have all the
+more money to play with when we begin upon the system to-morrow."
+
+They vacated their seats, which were immediately occupied by people who
+had been standing behind them, and moved slowly through the great hall
+towards the doors. By this time the rooms were thronged with people of
+all nationalities.
+
+The wealthiest millionaires of London, Paris and Vienna rubbed shoulders
+with well-dressed scoundrels known to the police of all three capitals.
+There was a reigning king present--a tall, elderly man with a long white
+beard--half the nobilities of Europe were represented. The most
+expensive and extravagant toilets to be found anywhere in the world at
+that hour were seen on either side, and yet there was a proportion of
+the players as poor in worldly goods as Ethel McMahon and her mother
+themselves; retired army men in whom the gambling fever burned and would
+burn until their death, young spendthrifts who had come to spend their
+all upon a last chance, financial defaulters who hoped by one smile of
+the goddess Fortune to restore money which was not theirs, and to yet
+preserve their honour in the eyes of the world.
+
+And through this motley and brilliant crowd--the strangest crowd in
+Europe, in the strangest place--Ethel and her mother moved as if in a
+dream.
+
+In the mind of the old lady a fierce and feverish greed flared like a
+naphtha lamp. In the mind of the girl there was but one thought,
+crystallised into a name--Basil! Basil! Basil!
+
+They were near the end of the last salon and coming up to the long swing
+doors when Ethel started violently and half stopped.
+
+Standing at one of the tables, within two or three yards of her, was a
+tall, well-built man in evening dress. His back was towards her, and
+there was something so absolutely familiar in the shoulders, the poise
+of the stranger, that she gasped.
+
+For a moment she thought she saw Basil Gregory again--dear Basil, who
+was far away at the electric light works in Paris.
+
+Then the stranger made a half turn. He was clean shaved, his complexion
+was swarthy, his hair was black. He was dressed also in the height of
+the French fashion.
+
+No! It was not Basil, though even now there was something strangely
+reminiscent of her lover to the girl's eyes.
+
+With a sigh, she passed out of the Atrium with her mother. They got
+their cloaks and walked slowly down the hall to the Condamine. The air
+was "all Arabia." A huge moon rode high in the heavens and washed the
+Mediterranean with silver. The flowers of the gardens sent forth an
+overpowering perfume--the night was sweet and dear.
+
+"_Basil! Basil! Basil!_"
+
+" ... To-morrow, my dear, we will get properly to work on the system.
+To-morrow!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+It was six o'clock on the following evening.
+
+In a tiny room high up in the Hotel Malmaison, above the servants'
+quarters, and on the roof, indeed--for the valet of Monsieur Montoyer
+was asthmatic and must breathe the freshest air possible--Emile
+Deschamps was standing.
+
+The blinds were drawn, the room was lit by candles stuck in bottles, and
+presented the air more of a workshop than a bedroom.
+
+The bed was littered with pliers, coils of insulated wire, strips of
+thin india-rubber, and a tube of vulcanised paste for making joints.
+Upon a large mahogany table close to the window stood a complicated
+apparatus.
+
+At one end there was a battery of Leyden jars, then came the intricate
+induction coil upon a polished stand, its brass terminals glittering in
+the light of the candles. Beyond was the interrupter magnet and beyond
+that again the stout "seven-sixteens" wire which led to the electric
+light casing in the wall, where the hotel current had been tapped to
+take the place of a dynamo.
+
+Upon that part of the table where the interrupter magnet was, there was
+an apparatus which in some degree resembled the keyboard of a
+typewriter. No letters were on these keys however. They bore numbers
+only, from one to thirty-six, with the addition of a nought to represent
+zero.
+
+Deschamps, in list slippers, was walking nervously up and down the room.
+Perspiration shone upon his face. His eyes had a fixed introspective
+stare. He was obviously in a state of the highest possible tension.
+
+Up and down the room he paced, like some caged animal, and every now and
+again he rolled a cigarette, lit it, and inhaled a few whiffs of pungent
+blue smoke, and threw it away. Now and then he poured himself out a cup
+of strong coffee from a little _cafetiere_ which stood upon the
+mantelshelf. On the hearth burned a small glowing fire of the mountain
+wood and fir cones which are used upon the Riviera, and beside it stood
+a soldering "iron" of copper, a file, and a bottle of zinc chloride
+solution.
+
+Deschamps looked at his watch.
+
+"Basil is late," he muttered to himself, mopping his brow as he did so
+with a very dingy handkerchief. "_Mon Dieu_, if only this were over!"
+
+He resumed his walk, thinking deeply, checking off each incident of the
+great adventure, the great fight of science against the precautions and
+wariness of the most complete and cunning organisation in Europe.
+
+The plans of the partners had been altered and modified. As the
+preparations continued in Paris and the scheme was discussed a thousand
+times, and with an infinity of detail which crystallised more and more
+into definiteness, the most important thing that was at length
+determined on--and the Carnet brothers had been in thorough
+agreement--was that play should only last for one night. The
+confederates had thought that phenomenal winnings, protracted over two
+or three days, would inevitably give rise to suspicion. These suspicions
+would, in all human probability, be absolutely wide of the real mark.
+But, at any rate, they would be certain to result in the wheel at the
+table where Monsieur Charles Edouard Montoyer made his colossal coups
+being changed for another.
+
+It was resolved, therefore, that Basil should play, with the aid of the
+unseen electric influences, for one evening only. The whole thing had
+been worked out, and it had been found that it would be easy, if nothing
+went wrong, for him to win an enormous sum even within a few hours.
+Directly that was accomplished Deschamps would pack his apparatus and
+return to Paris. Basil would remain at Monte Carlo for a few days and
+venture a few small sums to avoid suspicion. After that he would rejoin
+his friend.
+
+There was a low knock at the door, an interval of silence, and then five
+more distinct taps.
+
+Deschamps knew that Basil was without, and he quietly unlocked the door
+and let in his friend.
+
+Basil, tall, foreign looking, and in the most scrupulously chosen
+evening dress, entered the dingy little bedroom with its litter of
+machinery and tools. The door was locked behind him and the partners
+were alone together.
+
+Deschamps started. "_Mon Dieu!_" he said, "your _sang froid_ is
+admirable. You are--how do you call it?--cool as a cucumber. _Froid
+comme un concombre._ Look at me; I tremble all over, _moi_!"
+
+Basil shrugged his shoulders. "What is the use?" he said briefly. "I
+have been nervous enough up to the present, but now the moment has
+arrived I have just _got_ to keep cool. The biggest strain is on me, and
+if I fail now all our plans are over and it means"--he threw out his
+hands with a foreign gesture--"well, we won't talk of what it means."
+
+"You are marvellous!" said the excitable little Frenchman. "You have no
+tremor, no compunction."
+
+Basil shook his head. "I am strung up to go through with it," he
+answered, "and take what comes--fortune or prison. As for compunction,
+it seems to me a good deed to rob the proprietors of this hell if one
+can, considering all the stories I have heard during the few hours I
+have been here, and the evil passions I have seen displayed on all
+sides. And, moreover, we do it for the sake of science, to confer an
+inestimable benefit on the world!"
+
+"_Bien_," Deschamps answered. "Now, have you got the card absolutely
+safe? Let's compare it with mine for the last time."
+
+From out of his pocket Basil drew an oblong slip of card. Upon it,
+written in a cypher invented by himself and Deschamps, in which they had
+perfected themselves during the last week or two, were a series of
+numbers. Above each number was marked the time--9:5, 9:15, etc., etc.
+
+They went through the cards together finding them to correspond in every
+detail.
+
+"And now for the watches," said Deschamps. From a kit bag in the corner
+of the room he produced a leather case, containing two handsome gold
+chronometers. "I have kept them there until now," he said, "in order
+that they might not become magnetised by the electric work I have been
+doing."
+
+With the utmost care and nicety he adjusted the timepieces so that they
+did not vary, one from the other, by a single second. Then he gave one
+chronometer to Basil, and returned the other to the portmanteau.
+
+"I have been playing all the day," Basil said, "with the hundred and
+fifty louis we reserved for that. Sometimes I lost, sometimes I won. But
+I spread my money about with supreme indifference. Always I put down a
+maximum stake, and I played upon a number. Of course, I lost many times,
+but I am sure I gave the desired impression to the croupiers at our
+table where the marked wheel is, that I was a wealthy gambler
+indifferent as to whether I won or lost. Towards the end I had a stroke
+of luck. I had put nine louis on 7, and 7 turned up. So that I won 6,300
+francs. I had heard that the rule forbidding all tips to the croupiers
+had been recently abrogated; so that I feed the men in my neighbourhood
+magnificently. I shall get a seat at our table all right if I am
+punctual when the Casino opens for the evening play."
+
+"And what are you going to do now?" Emile asked anxiously. "Will you
+stay here with me?"
+
+"I don't think so, _mon ami_," Basil returned. "We have worked out every
+possible detail. The more we talk about it, the more nervous we shall
+become. I shall go to my room, have a little fish and a single glass of
+wine, and then stroll round the gardens in the fresh night air until it
+is time to go in." He held out his hand. "Good luck, old fellow!"
+
+Deschamps grasped it and nodded, too full of emotion and excitement to
+answer.
+
+Then Gregory quietly left the room and descended to his own.
+
+As he walked down the passage he heard the click of the lock being shot
+into its place and knew that Deschamps would be alone with his machinery
+till midnight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+Into the glittering rooms Basil Gregory strolled.
+
+He had left the Hotel Malmaison but five minutes before. The metal check
+for his light coat and opera hat was in his waistcoat pocket, and as he
+walked slowly up the Atrium, smoking a cigarette, he seemed--even in an
+environment where some of the most important people in the world
+congregate--a very distinguished person indeed.
+
+As he came up to the doors quick-eyed officials in their black frock
+coats--carrion-crows people have called them--made their bows and pushed
+open one of the great cedar portals.
+
+Already the word had gone round that this tall and cool gentleman was an
+unknown millionaire, who was pleased to amuse himself for an hour or two
+at the tables.
+
+Basil entered. People were still dining. The rooms were full--they
+always are full--but of the ordinary and hungry crowd who do little
+more than venture a few francs, and hardly dare take a chair at any
+table when one is vacant.
+
+Basil sauntered up to the right hand table in the large central salon.
+Some people call this table the "suicides' table," others give that
+sinister designation to another. Be that as it may, Basil found a chair
+and sat down--on the left of the croupier who spins the wheel and his
+colleague who sits behind him on a higher chair and directs the whole
+operations of the table.
+
+Basil sat down, took out his watch and placed it upon the space of green
+baize before him. Then he drew twenty or thirty gold coins from his
+pocket, and a couple of five hundred franc notes.
+
+The official who sat above the man who turned the wheel smiled down at
+the newcomer. It was a slack time. The table was half deserted, the rush
+of the diners had not yet begun.
+
+Basil took out his cypher card and placed it carefully behind a little
+rampart of gold coins.
+
+The croupier spun, and before the "_Rien ne va plus_" was uttered Basil
+had shoved his usual maximum of nine louis upon number 3--sitting as he
+did close to the wheel which divided the two long tables.
+
+Twenty-eight turned up. Basil saw his money raked away, with the few
+other stakes that were adventured, with a broad smile.
+
+No one could possibly have noticed the quick glance he gave at his
+watch. But that glance signified to him that for the next five minutes
+number "11" would be certain to win.
+
+He put the maximum upon number 11.
+
+He glanced again at his watch, as the croupiers began to croak their
+"_Faites vos jeux_" and gazed moodily round the table, which was now
+beginning to fill up. At that moment--a supreme moment to him--he was
+conscious of no particular emotion at all.
+
+When asked about it afterwards by a certain intimate friend he always
+said, "Really, I felt nothing whatever."
+
+The weary yellow-faced slave of the wheel did his duties.
+
+All the money upon the table, at that moment, was upon even chances,
+upon the dozens, the _transversales_, or the columns. No single person
+had played direct upon a number--a thirty-five to one chance.
+
+The big triangles of red and black at the far end of the table were both
+piled with gold and notes, the borders of several numbers were covered
+with adventurous stakes.
+
+There was a swift "click" as the ball went home.
+
+Number 11 had turned up.
+
+Basil Gregory had the impulse to rise from his seat and go striding up
+and down those glittering halls, hugging his secret, spurning those
+other players who knew nothing.
+
+Everything had occurred exactly as he had planned with Emile Deschamps.
+At the precise moment arranged between them the wireless message had
+come to the spinning ball and it had fallen, as it was directed,
+obedient to the unseen and unsuspected powers of science.
+
+He drew towards him six thousand three hundred francs--two hundred and
+fifty two English pounds!
+
+He looked at his watch again. The next slot in the wheel that was to be
+magnetised was 33. But it was not yet time. It had been arranged that
+he was to lose occasionally in order to divert suspicion.
+
+He placed the maximum of nine louis upon zero. To his consternation,
+zero won. Again he received the enormous sum of six thousand and odd
+francs. He leant back in his chair, outwardly indifferent and calm, but
+throbbing in every nerve and pulse with wild excitement. It was true
+then!
+
+A few hundred yards away, in the little bedroom on the roof, Emile
+Deschamps was pressing key after key with absolute precision. And as he
+pressed the little spinning ball, flung from the hand of the croupier,
+must perforce obey the invisible power that vibrated through the air.
+
+That he had won upon zero--when he meant to lose--seemed only a minor
+incident in the riot of his progress.
+
+The one man in the crowded halls of that palace--the one and only
+man--who could control Fortune herself, he sat there outwardly cold and
+impassive, while his mind and nerves were torn and wrenched as by
+opposing forces.
+
+He was now more than five hundred pounds to the good, and as yet he had
+only played one coup of the many agreed upon by the secret code.
+
+Already the people at the table were glancing at each other and at the
+impassive young man who staked a maximum each time, and had already won
+twice _en plein_--so unprecedented a thing to do.
+
+He was a Russian prince, it was whispered. His French was so
+perfect--though it was not absolutely the French of a Frenchman--that
+the whispering people round the table thought he could be none other
+than a Russian. That he was English never occurred to anyone, for no
+Englishman speaks French as Basil Gregory spoke it.
+
+The wheel was turning again, and everyone watched to see what the
+unperturbed figure by the croupier would do.
+
+This time, with a glance at his cypher card, and also at his watch,
+Basil backed red and not a number.
+
+Each number in the wheel has its corresponding colour, red or black, and
+it was as easy for him to win on an even chance as it was upon a chance
+of thirty-five to one. He backed red, and, far away at the top of the
+Hotel Malmaison, Emile Deschamps pressed the key which magnetised the
+slot 18 in the wheel upon the green table--18 being a red number.
+
+Basil placed the maximum upon red--that is, two hundred and forty
+pounds.
+
+Red turned up. He had now won nearly eight hundred pounds, and round his
+chair were grouped a crowd of people three feet deep.
+
+People were flocking from other tables, drawn by that nameless unknown
+mental telegraphy which tells the whole Casino when big wins are being
+made.
+
+The whole of the great rooms became electric with an atmosphere of
+excitement. There was not a sound as the people thronged to Basil's
+table--at Monte Carlo the greatest successes, the most disastrous
+failures, happen in silence.
+
+But, in that tense atmosphere, there was more than sound--there was a
+pressing together and focussing of human minds, converging upon one spot
+to witness the battle.
+
+"_Faites vos jeux, messieurs._"
+
+"_Le jeu est fait._"
+
+"_Rien ne va plus._"
+
+A rattle, a hushed silence--the player who had put a maximum of nine
+louis upon number 13 had lost!
+
+Men and women nodded and whispered, whispered and nodded. "Monsieur's
+luck was about to change, _n'est-ce 'pas_?" "It is not going to be a big
+run after all, _hein_?"
+
+Once more the wheel spun.
+
+Monsieur, with extraordinary daring, placed the maximum upon 6.
+
+Six turned up.
+
+In front of Basil Gregory was a pile of gold, still more important and
+significant a bundle of crinkled blue and white notes.
+
+He took the notes up with cool deliberation, folded many of them, and
+put them into the breast pocket of his coat, stretched out his hand, and
+put the maximum upon black.
+
+"_Noir, dix-neuf_," the croupier croaked, and another two hundred and
+forty pounds was pushed over by the rakes to add to Basil's store.
+
+By this time almost everyone at the table was playing as Basil played.
+
+If he staked upon an 8, the number was plastered and covered with gold
+and notes.
+
+Each time he won and by now a rumour of something utterly unique had
+spread through the whole vast building, other and lesser punters won
+with him. When he was up three thousand pounds against the Bank, the
+Bank had lost quite seventeen thousand.
+
+The air was electric. The word had gone round. _Habitues_ of the Casino
+crowded to watch one of those extraordinary nights of play which occur
+now and then--far more rarely than is supposed--and which are talked
+about for long afterwards. New-comers joined the throng, and still Basil
+Gregory sat impassive in his place, conscious that he was the centre of
+attention, but allowing nothing whatever to divert him from his purpose.
+
+He glanced at his watch.
+
+Stakes were being put upon the table timidly. The players were waiting
+to see what he was going to do.
+
+He glanced at his cypher-card. The moment was marked with a tiny cross.
+He was now to adventure a bigger coup than ever before.
+
+He placed the maximum of nine louis upon number 20--standing to win six
+thousand francs. He placed the maximum of sixty louis upon the line that
+covered the six figures from 16 to 21, including 20. Here also he stood
+to win 6,000 francs if 20 turned up.
+
+Then he staked on black. Number 20 upon the roulette wheel is a black
+number, so here, again, he played the maximum and stood to win the
+highest possible. Finally he backed the middle dozen of the 36 numbers,
+here also staking the maximum of 150 louis, again making it possible to
+win 6,000 francs.
+
+In that quiet place, where any outward expression of excitement or
+emotion is instantly suppressed, there came a low, sighing sound like
+the fluttering of leaves in the wind.
+
+It was the spectators whispering to each other.
+
+Such high play as this was beyond the experience of almost everyone.
+This time, getting more cautious, the other players wagered heavily
+against Basil. They thought such phenomenal luck as he had had could
+not possibly continue, and for the first time during the evening a
+slight sardonic smile came upon the young man's face.
+
+He knew, they did not, with what certainty number 20 would turn up.
+
+The wheel swung, the ball spun. "_Noir et vingt_," croaked the croupier.
+
+And now, as the rakes pursued their remorseless way, and swept in all
+the stakes upon the table except Basil's maximums, there was a low
+murmur of surprise and consternation. Anywhere else but in the Casino it
+would have been a babel of tongues.
+
+In one single minute Basil Gregory had won the huge sum of 24,000
+francs--960 English pounds.
+
+Standing by the director of the table, who sat above and behind the
+croupier who spun the wheel, there was now seen a tall and unobtrusive
+man with a pale face, a short black beard, and wearing evening dress. It
+was one of the heads of the permanent staff of the Administration--a
+mysterious being who only entered the rooms upon special occasion, a
+person invested with unknown powers--one of the gods!
+
+Basil had emptied his mind of thought.
+
+He had focussed his whole being upon what he was doing. The huge pile of
+wealth before him affected him no more than if the notes and gold--and
+by now there were many notes and but little gold--were but so many
+counters. Mechanically he folded bundle after bundle of thousand franc
+notes and placed them in the inner pocket of his coat.
+
+And then, in the stir and rustle, he heard a sharp
+exclamation--unremarked by the crowd around in that moment of tension,
+but like an arrow through his own consciousness.
+
+He looked up.
+
+Opposite him, down towards the end of the table, two ladies were
+sitting. He had been vaguely conscious of them before, but, during all
+his play, he had made a point of not allowing his thoughts or glances to
+be distracted by the other players.
+
+It was from one of those ladies, the young one, that he, and he alone,
+heard a little gasping cry.
+
+It was the girl he loved! It was Ethel McMahon!
+
+A mist seemed to rise up from the table as if water had been poured upon
+a heated plate of steel. For a moment it swayed and blotted out
+everything. His mind seemed to be a turning wheel. He felt little
+needles pricking at the back of his eyes, his blood congealed into a
+jelly, and the palms of his hands suddenly became covered with a film of
+perspiration.
+
+Ethel!... It was Ethel! And as the mist cleared away and his mind came
+to attention, he knew that this was no illusion, but that in very flesh
+and blood Ethel and her mother were sitting almost opposite to him
+playing at this table, playing roulette in the world's greatest gambling
+hell!
+
+The impulse to call out was almost unbearable, but he restrained it with
+an iron effort.
+
+He stared hungrily at the two women, and as he did so he saw Ethel and
+Mrs. McMahon look up and meet his gaze. He saw this also--in their eyes
+was envy and consternation, but not the slightest glint of recognition.
+
+And then he remembered his disguise--the spectacles, the shaved
+moustache, the foreign clothes, and swarthy complexion--and he realised
+that their interest in him was no more than that of any of the others.
+
+The whole crowd, the croupiers also, were waiting to see what he would
+do.
+
+The "_faites vos jeux_" was rapping out at him from all sides of the
+table.
+
+He knew that he must have an instant to think or else go mad. With
+careless gesture he threw a couple of louis upon the table before him,
+not caring where they fell, and once again the wheel of chance revolved.
+
+What did this mean? There was no answer to his agonised mental inquiry.
+
+He saw Ethel and her mother bending over a card covered with
+figures--one of those system cards so frequently seen at the tables, so
+certain to end in disaster.
+
+He saw also the pallor of their faces. He realised in a flash of
+intuition that they were losing heavily.
+
+How to warn them, how to tell them that he and he only possessed the
+secret key to Fortune to-night he could not think, he could not divine.
+
+Again he glanced at his card. Habit had become mechanical. His watch
+pointed to ten minutes past the hour. His directions stood clear and
+plain in the cypher before him.
+
+He sorted out his notes and did what was directed.
+
+Up there, on the top of the Hotel Malmaison, Emile Deschamps was even at
+that moment pressing a certain key. The result was as inevitable as sure
+as Fate.
+
+And as Fate or, rather, the cunning of science, the immense trickery of
+the two young geniuses, spoke, Basil saw that Ethel McMahon and her
+mother were very hard hit.
+
+He watched them slant-wise from the ends of his spectacles, realising,
+more definitely than ever, that they were playing upon some fallacious
+scheme, and being sure--with a jerk of memory--that old Mrs. McMahon had
+unearthed one of her late husband's systems, and was pursuing it to her
+own ruin.
+
+Again he won, and by now he was a rich man. The excitement was
+tremendous, when suddenly the tall man in evening dress announced a
+suspension of play.
+
+Basil Gregory had "broken the bank."
+
+There is a prevalent idea, among those who do not know much about Monte
+Carlo, that breaking the bank means that the whole play of the Casino is
+stopped for the night on which it occurs.
+
+This is quite wrong.
+
+"Breaking the bank" simply means that the resources of a particular
+table, out of the dozen or so tables on which roulette is played, are
+exhausted for a moment. In five minutes new money is brought and play
+goes on.
+
+It was so now. There was a hurried consultation, and in no time lackeys
+were bearing oak coffers bound with brass, filled with money, to Basil's
+table, accompanied by three or four frock-coated officials.
+
+The money was spread out in rows before the principal paying croupier,
+and six minutes had hardly passed when once more the calm, passionless
+voice of the director was calling upon the players to "make their game."
+
+But in the interim, as Basil Gregory leant back in his chair, he had
+heard, with ears quickened by anxiety and love, these words from Ethel
+to her mother--words spoken in English:
+
+"But, mother, we _cannot_ go on."
+
+Then the answer, in a sort of wail of despair: "We must go on, Ethel.
+This next coup is certain to put us right. We must pay no attention to
+the extraordinary luck of that young Russian nobleman opposite. We must
+adhere to your father's system. If this coup goes wrong, then we can
+only play twice again, and all our money will be exhausted. But I have
+every faith in your father's system."
+
+Then Basil heard something about "courage," and, finally, a whispered
+lamentation that "our capital is so small."
+
+Three numbers upon his cypher-card had passed by during the rebringing
+of money to the table.
+
+Glancing at his watch, he saw that the time was ripe for him to play
+upon 16.
+
+He was gathering up the necessary money to put upon the board, when the
+sallow man from the Administration pushed through the people surrounding
+him and whispered in his ear.
+
+If he liked, the official did not press it at all, monsieur should have
+the opportunity of playing three coups against the bank. That is to say,
+that the ordinary maximum should be entirely abrogated in favour of
+monsieur, and any sum he cared to wager upon an even chance, the
+Administration would be pleased to meet.
+
+The colloquy was very rapid. Deschamps had told Basil that such a thing
+might happen--such an offer be made to him. When a player has
+temporarily suspended the game at a certain table--or, in common
+parlance, "broken the bank"--the authorities are nearly always ready for
+a final sensational coup.
+
+Basil nodded. "Certainly," he said, pulling out bundle after bundle of
+notes. "I will play 200,000 francs on red."
+
+The number 16 is a red number. Basil wagered almost his whole winnings
+of that night without a tremor.
+
+There was now a dead silence round the table. People clustered about it
+ten deep in the vain effort to see what was going on. Yet, while the
+wheel was turned and the ball spun, the only unconcerned person about
+this gigantic stake was Basil Gregory himself.
+
+No one else put a single coin upon the table, save only a trembling old
+lady who sat by a young and lovely girl--an obstinate old lady, clinging
+to a hope.
+
+Basil was given notes to the value of L16,000.
+
+The most notable thing about the Casino, with its enormous resources, is
+the absolute impassibility of its officials.
+
+Again Basil wagered L8,000--this time upon black.
+
+He won, and as his money was being paid to him a loud murmur rose from
+the crowd--a loud murmur, broken by a sharp and pulsing cry.
+
+A tall and beautiful girl had risen from her feet and had fallen in a
+deep swoon into the arms of the bystanders behind her.
+
+There was an immediate struggle. The electric tension of the moment was
+over. The well-dressed crowd surged and almost fought in a panic of
+snapped nerves and suddenly relaxed excitement.
+
+People came surging from all sides. The other tables were deserted,
+and, far away through the great halls, those who were playing
+_trente-et-quarante_ rose from their cards with listening ears.
+
+In that supreme moment Basil Gregory did not lose his head. He gathered
+up his enormous winnings. The pockets of his coat bulged with wealth.
+And Ethel McMahon was being carried out into the Atrium, followed by her
+mother in a state of wild hysteria, before he rose from his seat.
+
+He took six thousand-franc notes from one of his pockets. To each of the
+six croupiers he gave a note.
+
+Then he sauntered quietly out into the huge hall.
+
+Under the brilliant electric lights which gleamed upon the marble he saw
+little groups of people--each group seeming quite small in the
+immensity--talking earnestly together.
+
+As he came out among them every head was turned, though of Ethel and her
+mother he saw not a trace.
+
+But as he went to the cloak-room, and delivered his metal ticket, two or
+three commissionaires came up to him with awed and respectful faces.
+
+"That young lady?" he said, "and the elder one with her?"
+
+"It was nothing, monsieur," one of the men hastened to say. "They are
+two English ladies staying at the _pension_ in the Rue Grimaldi. Your
+success, monsieur, unnerved them. They have been sent home in a
+_voiture_."
+
+Basil nodded as he was helped into his long, dark coat.
+
+With a smile he distributed a few gold coins, and then, alone,
+unattended, he walked out into the warm, aromatic night, and strolled to
+his adjacent hotel among flower-bordered paths, under the twin lights of
+electricity and the great, red moon of the South.
+
+At the Hotel de Paris, at the Metropole, at Ciro's, people were
+gathering for gay supper parties.
+
+As he entered the huge, brilliantly decorated lounge of the Malmaison,
+groups of wealthy people were smoking a preliminary cigarette before
+supper. Some of them--many of them--recognised him, and nodded and
+whispered to each other, but he entered the lift and went straight to
+his own room.
+
+He turned up the electric lights, and locked the door. And then, from
+pocket and pocket, he poured out crackling, crumpled heaps of notes,
+heavy handfuls of gold--the wealth of which he had dreamed.
+
+After a minute or two, without even locking the door of his
+sitting-room, he stumbled out of it and up the stairs to the servants'
+quarters.
+
+He gave the signal knocks.
+
+He was at once admitted to the dingy little bedroom-workshop.
+
+Emile Deschamps was there. The Frenchman's face was as grey as evening
+ice.
+
+He was staring at his apparatus in a sort of stupor, and by his side the
+chronometer ticked.
+
+Emile gave a loud shout as Basil tumbled into the place.
+
+"It is done, then?" he gasped. "_Mon ami_, it is a thing done?"
+
+All grimy as he was Basil led his friend down into his sitting-room.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At two o'clock on the afternoon of the next day two English ladies,
+accompanied by a little, swarthy Frenchman, with a dressing-case which
+never left his hands, rolled out of the station of Monte Carlo, _en
+route_ for Paris.
+
+For two days after this Monsieur Montoyer was observed to walk
+distractedly through the salons and occasionally to place a maximum upon
+a single number. Monsieur Montoyer did not repeat his successes, and
+those who followed his play cursed him and their own credulity deeply
+and silently.
+
+The great night when Fortune smiled upon the "young Russian nobleman" is
+still remembered by the assiduous acolytes of Chance. It is talked
+about, and given as an instance to new-comers of what bold, indifferent
+play can accomplish.
+
+Nobody connects Sir Basil Gregory, Bart., the head of the great firm of
+Deschamps, Gregory and Co., which has revolutionised wireless
+telegraphy, with the spectacled, clean-shaven young gentleman who made
+such a sensation one night in the Casino at Monte Carlo.
+
+Sir Basil and Lady Gregory spend almost all their days in the charming
+old house they have bought near Falmouth.
+
+But on the Riviera there is an old, old lady--the well-known Madame
+McMahon--who still haunts the gambling hells of the Continent. She is a
+recognised figure. She has a marvellous system which never comes off,
+but when she gets into difficulties with the proprietors of her
+_pension_, mysterious telegraphic drafts upon the local bank always
+arrive in the nick of time, either from Cornwall or from Quimperle, in
+Brittany, where Monsieur Edouard and Monsieur Charles Carnet have a
+house, and are churchwardens of the unique cathedral.
+
+
+
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