Evening Star Newspaper, March 19, 1922, Page 66

The Secret Worth Half agMillion—A Story by William| Le Queux N interesting secret, unknown to the public, concerns -the Soclete Anonyme des Bains 4 Mer de Monaco, which, i plain English, is the Casino at'Mon aSerio- o Forfunes have been and are atill lost and won upon the green-cotered tables of those gorgeously-gilded _ salons where Vice rubs shoulders|out—begat to follow the lucky young with Avarice, and where the mondé is upon equality with, the demi- monde. But the world has remained in ignorance of a series of exciting circumstances which I think the reader will agree to be quite remark- able. D As one who has spent many. win- ters on the Riviera, and who. has risked his golden louls upon the ta- plc vert with varying fortune—for the galmbling. spirit is so contagl- ous that the visitor cannot help plac- ing a modest stake upon the rouge or noir or upon a transversale or a cheval—I am on friendly terms with many of the staff of the beautiful establishment Dbeside the sapphire sea. One day, while making, some ob- servations for the purpose of Writing 2 novel with a background ot Monte Carlo life, T sat in thg office of M. Henrl Jacquin, the .baldheaded,’ mf- fable director of the Casino. ¥id asked him to relate to me any seeret concerning the greatest gambling concern in the world. The story he related to me I-give in his own way, for I shall tran- scribe it from the notes T took at the time. « AT first AL Jaequin was rather dis- <% inclined to reveal the facts. Im- deed, he admitted to me that his hesi- tation was due to doubt wWhether the public ought really to be let into the secret. Naturally, I pressed him to disclose the truth, and at last he aia so. 3 T well recollect that bright, sunny afternoon. Through the long win- dows of his comfortable office I could see through the palms the Mediter- ranean, of that 'intense deep blue which those who have been .to *“Aonty” know so well. - Ever and anon came the pop-pop of the tir aux pigeons, while sometimes, as he re- vealed the secret, men dressed in somber black came with slips of pa- per for him to sign and departed without a word—receipts for further supplies of money to the various tables. The great secret of Monte Carlo * was discovered about three years ago * ¥ “ by an old Itallan woman named Laura Bertelll. This woman, a widow, who was an habituee, and. indeed, earned her living in the rooms, was a native of Bologna. You will. he saig. won- der how she earned her living. Well, briefly, each, day when the roulette tables opened she secured one of the best seats, pretended to play with pleces of cent sous, and then, when the crowd came in the afternoon. she sold her seat for twenty francs to one of the visitors. ‘We have a dozen such old women who do this regularly seven days each week, and on seven louis per week live quite well, T assure you. 014 Signora Bertelli had done this for a number of years. and had be- come onc of the best known char- acters in the Yooms. seated each day at the same tablé, noting the winning numbers upon her card, and, though HEN, without the slightesi emo- tion and quite unconcerned, he glanced @p and down the table and cried again: “Messieurs, faites vos jeux!" In ‘the Instant the crowd, amcng whom ware many -wealthy Americans and Russtah$—tho people vho haunt Monte Carlo year in and vear| Woman. . Qm, all sldes 5-franc pleces, golden Jotisand 100-franc panknotes were befng. placed around the num- ber twenty-elght. But the handsome Italian girl, hav- ing screwed up her big tundle of notes into her purse, did not make a further stake. She simply sat there, amused. ? She smiled across to ‘the old man, and just before the next throw of the ball upon the revolving wheel ycung Grant, who was dressed In light gray, bent and whispered some words iato her ear. She smiled and nodded assent. Then the wheel was turned, the ball fell, and all who had staked on twenty-elght and its sufrounding numbers lost entirely—for zero turned up! S The crowd at that particular table, excited b¥..the pretty Italian girl's winning “of, the maximum, played coup after coup, but on each occa- sion’ they lost, while therdark-eyed sivhn seated there amidst them, with the old: Spaniard opposite her and the young Englishman standing be- hind her, did not venture to play | again. 2 All three, howdyer, watched eagerly. The eyes of each were fixed n the wheel of fortune. The chief of the | party, who, in other words, is chief lof the table and who sits in his high chair behind the chief croupler, { wafching that the play is fatr—and here let me say that no gamés of! chance are fairer than those played at Monte Carlo—hardly noticed what was in progress. That somebody should win the max- fmum was in the ordiniry course of events. As against those few who win there are so many who lose, and who at last apply to the bureau for their viatique—their fare, third-class, to their home, be it Peterborough or Petrograd, New York or New Zea- 1and. * ok %k {(Q the day following the coup of |~ the nandsome Ttallan girl. shey made, about 7 o'clock in the evening, when nearly every one had gone to | dinner. another coup which brought her nearly 2,800 bounds. And she had not lost one sou! Disregarding dinner, she sat in the, isame seat, the old man in front of her, the young Englishman standing behind her. Few people were around the table at that hour, for from 6:30 to 8:30 the rooms are always practically de- serted. At 9 o'clock the eager crowd surge in again through those gilded ! salons in which the degenerates of the world assemble. Just before 8 Anita played again, suddenly, upon number twelve, plac- ing the maximum upon the number, and upon all the numbers around. namely, the numbers from seven to twelve, on twelve and fifteen, twelve iand nine, and twelve and eleven. as | well as upon the red. The wheel was spun. Again she won. It was the curious fact :ihat she had not staked a single sou since friendly spirit, en?” she asked in her quick Itallan way. = “Yes. 1 am sorry to be-impolite, but I do,” and I bowed. ¢ “Very well,” she replied, rather plqued. “Soon you will regret that you did not negotiate, T assure you. We win when we wish and we aNall continue to do so. Watch-us:and see!” And she laughed merrily and rejoined her lover. One point was certain—the trio were® absolutely confident that their system—Iif it were a system—was in- tallible. ow at “Charley’s Mount” we have heard of systems for years. We know, however, that there is no sys- tem which will ever get. the better of the bank. Hence, if a player wii methodically, we put it down to some new system, well knowing that in the end all systems fail. So we put down the conquest of the pretty Anita to a system, one tu which her purse must, sooner or iiter, succumb. , But the problem presentcd to vk was that whenever the dar d, handsome girl played she always won. She never lost a single coup! ® ok ok ¥ AY by day she sat in that same chair, the third from the end nearest the door. playing just as she decided, perhaps only half a dozen times or less in twelve hours, yet whenever she placed a stake on tha table the young Englishmdn and the she risked but little, she was, never- |3 8 W00 M O o arounet the | o1a Spaniord followed her example, theless, an adept playercat roulette. She had sometimes with her a niece, 2 very maadwhme;. dark- young Italian girl, named’ Arfita Maf- Shetti, whose beauty was much re- marked by the visitors, but the only friend she appeared to have, save ‘her aunt, was a tall, well-set-up Englishman, whose name was Archi- bald Grant. I noticed the pair in the rooms on one or two occasions, some- times eagerly watching the table at " which Signora Bertelli played—the first table on the right as you enter fhe rooms: Suddenly, all three from their usual spot. the head croupler of the table in question inquired of a friend of the signora, an old French woman, named , Plerret, and learned that the widow 1iad been taken very unwell and had gone back to Bologna iwith her niece, and that Archie Grant had returned to London. After a week * % ¥ ¥ \IEARLY three months wept by, UN when there reappeared at the table the pretty Anita with her Eng- lish admirer, together with an el- derly, bald-headed Spaniard, whose name, we learned, was Jose Vasquez, 2 man plainly dressed, who had the air of a deputy. For several days they were merely onjookers, the old man seated ‘oppo- site the girl, carefully registering the numbers from onme to thirty-six. as they came up at each coup. The girl lived expensively at the Hotel de Paris, while. the elderly man rad taken up his quarters at the Metropole with young Grant. At first they attracted mo attention. Our de- partment of surveillance is usually ‘very alert, but there was nothing un- usual about them, save the girl's extraordinary beauty. One afternoon, however, as the pair were seated, as usual, confronting each other, the man—just. as the croupier turned the wheel—gave & signal to the girl, behind whose chair young Grant was standing, where- ‘upon she produced a bundle of bank- notes from a capacious purse and . placed the maximum of 6,000 francs en; plein upon number twenty-eight. About 200 people were around the tavte, and Instantly every one Was filled with excitement. It is not often that the maximum is staked upon a single number without anything to against loss. . "Rien ne va plus!” the croupier eried, and gave the little ivory ball "a fiick with finger and thumb, and sent it fiying round the outer edge of the bowl in the oppoxite direction 1o, ‘'which the wheel revolved. e girl held her breath untjl, of! 2 sudden, the ball fell with a sharp click into one of the little compart- ments in the wheel. For a second there was an eager ‘hush. Then the croupler’s strident wvolce cried in French: : “wpwenty-eight! Vingt-huit! Noir! ‘Pair et passe N The stake the young woman:had was en plein on number twenty-eight, but other players had staked a cheval on the numbers twenty-five and twenty-eight, and on twenty-eight and thirty-one, and twenty-eight and twenty-nine, as well ms transversales on twenty-elght, | twenty-nine and thirty. Those crowding around the table stood as the croupier, rapidly reck- loming the winnings, counted out = jin four handfuls pushed them toward the lucky wisner upon the en! of his wooden rake. i 1 \ were missed curiosity of the automatic officials at the table. | Having won again, she tool her winnings and, laughing merrily, went out with the young Englishman. strolled across to the Ho! where they both dined ex- pensively, paying the equivalent of 4 pounds sterling for their dinner. Yet the girl was not in the .cast excited. Her attitude of confidence was of a person wha knew she Lad all to gain and nothing to lose. Indeed, later on, at 9:45 that night, she won still another 14,000 francs, and smiled as calmly as though she had only won a couple of louls. After_the close of the play the mat- ter was reported to me by Paul Camo- 1ét, chief of our surveillance depart- ment,” which looks after those who are lucky, and also those who are o unlucky as to apply for the viatique or take their lives, the big fodls— for fools commit suicide. Camolet came to my room at mid- night and related to me what I have just disclosed. 1 dismissed it, saying: “Oh, theyll lose it all, my dear Paul. Have We not often seen others win big sums, but they slways lose it again in the long run?” “Yes,” he replied, rather hesitat- ingly, “but In this case the girl and her friends are so entirely corfident. I have discovered today that old Sig- nora Bertelli, whom we have alil | known for years, died two months ]ago in Bologna. - Why should her nlece and her love return here with this Spanlard?’ * R “QTRANGE that she should win each and they would win thousands of pounds. ~ 1 watched and saw that it wild attempt to break the ba was ne nk. THe trio played with most exquisit> cau-] tion and were plainly out with con- fidence to win big money. I confess I regretted my words to her in the atrium when she had of- fered to negotiate. That they had a perfect system was apparent, but 1ts nature both Camolet and myself—in- deed, all the staft of the administra- tion—failed utterly to establish. Archie Grant was a typical British officer in mufti, tall, with a monocle and wristlet watch. He was evi- dently a gentleman. I gave Camolet orders to instruct his agents to watch the trio and report to me daily. 'An his secret agents are ex-officers of the Paris Surete, hence they are ex- pert, alive and rellable. Possibly no department of survelllance in all the world is' so complete or 50 well sup- plied with funds as ours of Monte Carlo. The tentacles of our famous Camo- let extend to every city. Many vis- itors tq Monte Carlo who play for high stakes are quite unconscious that inquiries are being made con- cerning .them at their own homes: for, as you know} all those who re- ceive the yellow ticket of admission to the Cercle des Etrangers are re- quired to furnish their home ad- dresses. Camolet's work also includes the hushing up of any unfortunate cases of suicide through ruin, of which we sometimes have many. The latter come In cycles, the reason of which I have never yet been able to understand, for the viatique is al- ways ready for those unfortunates s . THE SUNDAY STAR,. WASHINGTON. time she decldes to play.” I said.|who apply for it. . Then, laughing, I added: “Well, let| Well, Anita Marchettl, young Grant them contlnue.” They will come to and the old Spaniard continued their ruin-sooner or later. To win always |operations day after day, always at is, as' you “know, quite impossible. | the same table. For-four days, though Those who break the bank return |they sat there patiently, they refrained again and give us back all they have | from playing. Such was the report taken—with one or two exceptions.” | Which Camolet presented to me. “Darnborough took 90,000 pounds * from us not long ago,” he remarked. s v “ryye. A lucky chance. But this|MN the fifth day, about 3 o'clock in young woman will soon pay us back the afternoon, .they won 60,000 all she has taken—and more. Never |francs on the first twelve numbers, fear!” and again before dirfner a second 1 went home that night quite con- 60,000 francs upon the last dozen. fident that the trio were doomed in| That night Guilbert, the chief of the jong run to utter ruin. the staff at-the table in question, , My disillusion, however, came |came Into-my room in & Staté of great quickly. excitement, declaring: : Next day at the same.table and| “That Ifallan.girl has a system! never losing a sou, they won 16,000 | She has discovered a means of win- pounds sterling, all of which, before |ning -always. She. and her friends banking hours, they placed in the |have never lost—not one single eoup!” * R E Comptoir d'Escompte to the credit of { “But how?” I asked. “Have you Grant’s account. watched?” Before doing so they smiled at the{ *Watched!” he echoed. “I have chief of the play and at the crouplers | watched day after day, but it is“a and went forth. complete ‘mystery. They win caup As they passed through the atriam |upon coup. They -wait for hours— on their way out, the -pretty Anita,|whole. days—and never play. -Yet espying me, crossed and exclaimed in [when they do play.they never fail to French: win!” % 58 “Well, m'sieur, you know that we “But this system?’ I asked of the can win always now. What will the [official, a reljable man, who had! administration give us for the secret |grown gray inour service. “What.is of our system, eh?” -And her dark|it?” E R 3 eyes danced mischlevously. _*“M’sieur, .I cannot tell! AN I can “Mademoiselle,” I replied filppantly, |say is that they have discovered an “we give mnothing. No system will|infallible mode of winning at rou- ever be able to break the bank en-|letts, such as we have never yet seen. tirely.” It {s none of ‘the ordinary system of “Except ours,” she laughed. “I will [numbers and series of numbers—all call at your office tomorrow morning |of ‘which must, in the end, go to the and give you an opportunity to place | wall"” my offer before the administration.” “And the pretty Italian girl will'go “I fear your time would be thrown [to the wall ere long; Guilbert—de- away, mademoiselle,” I laughed “You [pend upon it,” I laughed. “No one may, perhaps, employ it to better ad- [has ever successfully stood agaimst vantage at the table.” our bank. There is an'evil fortune “Then you refuse to negotiate in a!which always equalizes a . player's good fortune. They will experlence it very soon—never fear!” And T dismissed him. Next evening it was reported to me that Anita Marchetti had won a fur- ther 31,400 francs that afternoon, and yet another™30,000 at 8 o'clock. After that she gave a dinner to her friends at-the Restaurant de Paris to cele- brate her victory. ) : On the following afternoon. I en- tered the crowded room, and, unob- served, watched the girl sitting oppo- site the old Spaniard, with the young Englishman, as usual, standing near. Around that particular table the excited' crowd stood six deep. News of the extraordinary luck of the I pretty girl had spread through the rooms, and every one was now wuch-'slro!led into the rooms ‘and Wllched' ing upon. what number she would | play next, in order to follow her. | * % k% | QUDDENLY, as I atood tl i the old man and the girl ex- change signs, whereupon the latter placed the maximum upon number thirty-three. In an instant dozens.of hands of both sexes placed money¥ upon the table on the transversale, the odd number, the “column” and the noir. I confess that I awaited the game | With interest. All eyes were -fixed upon the table. - The young English revue actress, whose name I do not recall, flung a billet of 1,000 francs upon the number, with a_gay laugh to 2 man behind her.. “Rien ne va plus:” cried the crou- pier sharply. after he had spun the fred and black wheel and the little {ivory ball was clicking upon its way. | "For a few seconds, as usual, all iwere breathless in the tension of the game. “Trente-trois! Noir:” croupler in his harsh cried the tone, which echoed through the great salom, and| {the gay. dark-haired Anita had won once more, while her following crowd of players had also gained. As she left the table she passed | me. and, haiting. esclaimed in a low but tantalizing whispe: “Ah, M'sieur Jacquin! Do you not regret that you did not come to an arrangement rather than allow us to ruin the administration?" “Mademoiselle, I regret nothing,” was my rather stiff reply. 5 Not tonight, but you will be full of regret soon, for whatever you offer us we will not now accept.” “Suppose T give orders that neither you nor your friends be admitted " 1 asked. “Then we should sell our secret to others. Belleve me, there would be many eager to buy at a huge figure!” And, laughing gayly, she followed young Grant and, the old Spaniard out. I went home to my flat down in La Condamine that night full of grave reflections. Here was 2 person who Liad actually discovered a means to insure our defeat! g Next day, and yet the next, the trio continued to win big coups of the maximum. Then in the evening all three left and went across to dine at Ciro's. s By this time the fame of the “Bella Anita,” as she was called, had spread through all Monte Carlo, Nice, Cannes and Mentone, and each time she en- | tered the rooms the table was in- stantly crowded by those eager to follow her play. When & person plays a game of chance and -never-fails to' win, one's suspicions must be at once aroused. Mine were. I held a meeting with my assoclates of the administration, and before.us we had. a table of their winnings _They were staggering. The girl and her assoclates had al- 4 ready banked 126,000 pounds! We saw that-it, was now high time that we beatirred- ourselves. " e kKX BAK, one of’our direttors, jeerea at’ the whole affair ‘and declared that “the combination would in the end ruin” itself. I réplled that all systems ended in ruin, but the present one could not if, as had been proved, the players had never once lost. We'resolved te watch still another day—a day which proved disastrous, for the little dark-eyed girl, with her English -lover behifid her, broke the bank soon hfter g o'clock in the aft- ernoon. * Each day, be it remarked, they car- rled tHelr winning to the Comptoir d'Escompte, now placing them in the joint names of Signorina Marchett! and young Grant, whose address_the latter had given as at “Fitzjohn's.ave- nue, Hampstead, Lgndon. I grew anxfous. Aa the person fe- sponsible for the well being of thé Casind company, I felt if my duty to report to the president of:the com- pany, M. Destruge, in-Paris. 1 did so by telegraph, and the same night from my own flat talked to him over the telephone. “Let them go on!” he laughed. “They, certainly.can never win in the long run.” .2 ‘With this view I ventured to dif- fer, but he was so emphatic that I was forced: to acceptwpis opinion. My own SHE SMILED AS CALMLY AS THOUGH SHE HAD ONLY WON A COUPLE OF LOUIS. hereT K:"‘_‘youflg Englishman still an observer. ! I ! ! oqther. If we forbade their entrance, asonnba e as st vain: they would only glve the secret to' On the following day the trio won |Others. We don’t want that! There- a further 20,000 pounds, while the|fore we must exercise the most deli- winnings of those following the girl's|cate diplomacy, and we must pay Dlay Were prodiglous. Instead of our | Whatever. ezorbitant price they ask. bank making any profit, it was losing | I leave it entirely to you.” heavily daily. 3 The position now became a most Tn desperation I spoke that night|anxious’ome.' If I falled, then it with M. Destruge in Paris, begging|might mean the closing of the estab- him to come to Monte Carlo at once | lishment. EXT day it was reported to me and. personally witness the play of N that they had made three coups the weird trio. At first he demurred, as he had booked his passage from Havre toland had banked a further 17,500 New York that week, but at last, after | pounds between them! a long argument and declaration that 1 et Anita In the rooms about 4 I refused to accept any futher re-locideck. She was dressed modestly in sponsibility, he reluctantly consentedplack, with ome single ornament—a to traved by the train de luxe next|piece of Chinese jade suspended from day. her neck by a black molre ribbon. On his arrival we had a long and | Her appearance was so entirely dif- very serious consultation in my room.|ferent from the overdressed women Indeed, 1t lasted all the afternoon. of both worlds who frequent the ta- bles that she In herself had become HAT night, with one of his €o-|, curioug and: mysterious personality. directors, the Baron Despujol, we She smiled at me triumphantly as, side by side, she strolled with her English lover idly into the trente-et- quarante room, at the end of the great salon. ) An hour later I had a private chat with Grant, and told him in guarded language that we were prepared to pay as high a price for. the secret as his London syndicate would do, and, turther, T put it to him that if he f1tended to marry Anita—as I pre- sumed he did—then the sale of the !secret would make tiem both rich | beyond the dreams of avarice. In an instant I saw that the young { fellow's whole ambition was to marry idea, however, was that Monte Carl ko %% the pretty Itallan. Therefore, we had a long and confidential chat. The result was that -next day at rnoon Grant brought his two compan- jons into my office, but, to my chagrin, the pretty Anita was still defiant, utterly refusing to give away the secret, which, it now appeared, had been imparted to her by old Sig- nora Bertellf just prior to her death. For a full ‘hour I tried to prevail upon her to make-us an offer, but she only laughed, repeating that we, hav- ing refused on a previous occasion, she and her friends had o intention of considering the matter further. * ¥ % % ROM the outset I had seen that she was a very hard-headed little woman, and, further, that the old Spaniard was advising her 5ot to en- tertain any offer. | “We have discovered the secret of | winning at Monte Carlo, Monsieur i.hcqul * the old fellow said calmly. [ "Wy should we mot continue to win?’ “Because we are prepared to buy the gay crowd at play. At the same|}our *%s 0y i T"® oot Sianne, table sat the young girl and the old o 7 €U AT NS T ong v Spaniard. = with the good-looking| ;o gaministration would be com- pelled to close its doors!” “It probably will!” laughed Anita triumphantly. A further three weeks passed. Grant had gone to London, probably to consult the syndicate who were preparing for operations against us on a very big scale. Meanwhile, An- ita and old Vasquez remained, but they only played on four occasions, yet each time they did not fail to win. M. Destruge and his co-directors existed in a state of eager apprehen- sion as to what was to be the out- come of it all. To us money was no object 80 long as we obtained the secret by which the bank could be beaten at will. At last _Archie, Grant returned. His radiant appearance at once filled me with grave fears. That evening, about 9 o'clock, one of the crouplers came to inform me that Mr. Grant desired to speak with me in private. Instantly I went to my room, and a few moments later the trio were shown in. Grant was the first to speak. “I have at last prevailed upon the Signorina Anita to reconsider her de- cision, Monsieur Jacquin. But if we sell T warn you that the price must be a very high one, for we have also Half an hour latef at a signal from | '© fetile ¥th our Londen ayndica old Vasquez, she took out a handful| Lo NSt EEVER NS L of notes, which she had previously ) oo o*C BIGIY LS Daxiousty. counted, and gave them to the crou-|" wyone whatever. We have gm'"ed plerto placeion zero. into an agreement to sell in case you A dozen other players, watching| s, hig us to play further—that is all.” closely, followed her with more mod-| "1 callea M. Destruge and his co- est stakes. ¥ e : directors, and for an hour or more we e L ot paDir with|all sat discussing the prics, and.bar- peculiar roll of the “r’ which|g,ining n sums of hundreds of thou- the habitue of Monte Carlo knows so sands of francs. well, and while most of the players|**a¢ 1ogt. after much shrewd dealing, saw their stakes swept into the bank a price was fixed, a check was dnwn’ the cashier began to count out &| he jargest check ever drawn by the auantiny, of thousand-franc notes 2% ladministration—and handed over to the girl's winnings, as well as paying & those who followed her. 'c‘:fvr.”‘"" Gaty, W ESEMgGet v s You are right” whispered e It was then agreed that witen the president of the company as We, ,,omg were closed at midnight and strolled away together to further dl!-“he public excluded she was to give cuss the situation. “We have never seen such sensational play in the!:: :h:";::::t”mhm"“ AmEeNealito) The trio did not notice us, so intent were they upon the game. They had sat there mearly six hours without hazarding & franc upon the game, They simply watched. As 1 was whispering into the ear of M. Destrlige, the bald-headel o:d Spaniard suddenly nodded to the girl, before him. Already the red and black dise been set in motion, ithe croupier declared the game to be made, the ivory ball had been sent ugon its fateful journey with a sharp rattl [ The pretty Anita, who had a bun- i dle of thousand-franc notes read: stretched out her arm and placed; them en plein, on number tweals-| eight. . “Vingt-huit)’/’ cfied the, croupier, sharply, and again the young woman had won a maximum. She recgjved her winnings quite carelessly, without troubling to count them, and stuffed the four handfuls of notes into her capacious purse, while all at the table gasped at her good fortune. At the next coup the number twenty-eight was well covered, but Anita Marchetti did not play. She knew that the plungers would lose— and they did. had d whole history of the Casino. They A Sy never lose!” “That's just the point,” I said. O when the game was over and the -+~ great crowd of visitors .had de- parted the table was reopened with a fresh supply of money, while Anita and the Spaniard took seats opposite each other. 7 “They have at last discovered some infallible system. That is why I pro- pose to make terms with them.” . EIE I i T IlACl( in my office we sat and dis- > cussed the matter very seriously, for we all saw that if such play con- tinued all our profits would disap- pear and the company must eventu- ally be ruined. At last I was deputed to approach the young lady after they had finished playing that night. Just before 11 o'clock word came to me thatgthe trio had riepn from the table. I instantly sent them & mes- sage Inviting them up to see me. I was alone in my room when they were ushered in, all three radfant and happy. “Well, signorina and gentlemen,” I said, offering thef seats, “I must first congratulate you upon your:extraor- dinary - good. fortume. But, -truth to tell, the object I have in asking you to come and see me Is to suggest that Wwe compromise.” . “Ah!” laughed the girl saucily. “You are ready to purchase our se- cret, Monsieur Jacquin, eh?' Did I not tell you that you would regret your refusal a few weeks ago?” “The administration s ready to consider your terms, madempiselle,” T 1d, with dignity. 5 To my surprise, however, she said: “We have no terms to effer. You refused, so we shall-continue to play. Therefore, the matter does not admit of further discussion.” = “But surely you and your friends are open to reason?’ I cried. “We are prepared to-pay a-big sum for your secret.” i % “And we.have a syndicate formed in London,which is equally. ready to purchase our secret. and set them- selves out to ruin the company alto- gether,” Grant replied. : . I confess that, not being prepared for this, I was entirely nonplussed. They went out, and a few minutes later I saw Destruge, who said: “At all hazards we must buy their secret, Jacquin. This cannot go fur- “Though ‘the Wheel was spun ten times, they made no attempt to play. At the eleventh coup the Spaniard nodded just after the croupier had spun the dlsc, whereupon the girl placed the maximum upon twelve, which won. “Amasing!” cried Destruge. “How is it done? But she only laughed, and after six more coups again staked awd again 1 won. “Now,” she sald, “here is the simple truth, which my aunt learned after tsitting and watching daily at this table for years. When the number eleven upon the wheel is exactly opposite the croupier as he spins it then the ball will fall into twenty- elght. . When thirty-aix is opposite twenty-nine will win! And there are other numbers, t00.” “Ah!" - I cried ‘instantly. “Then there is & slight inequality in the dle as it revolves?' “Exactly, m'sieur,". replied the girl. | «xy aunt discoversd It and disclosed the secret to Senor Vasquex and my- Ygelf. It is only at thia table, for all [ the other discs run true. ! The disc was that night destroyed, and from that moment all diacs have been - tested each night after play, and are never used upon the same table twice in sucvession, ] . Grant,» who married Anita Mar- chetti, now llves in Londen, but they have built themselvea a beautitul villa_among the trees at Cap Martin, in tull view of the Casino, which they 50 nearly brought to rutm. (Copyright, 1832.) —— Marie Corelli was educated in a French convent and -first studied for a musical career. But writing soon calléd her, and the success of “A’ Ro- mance of ~Two Worlds" decided “her to devote” her whole energies to lit- erature,” O the editor: I don’t suppose| they's one man in a million that | is satisfied with their job but! everybody is always wishing | they was somebody else or had some- ' body elses job or something. That is, the reason so many correspondent | schools makes big money because | when the average man reads in the| ads that he can tripple his earnings but cut down his work to almost| nothing by taking a 6 mos. course of | study by mail, why he won't loose no | time subscribeing to the course. { “Well friends they certainly can't; nobody find fault with a school thll" can learn you how to get a better job but it seems to me like the profes-! “The Auction Bridge Teacher” By Ring W. Lardner. “YOUR FIRST CLASS IS MADE UP OF THREE PUPILS NAMED MR, BON AND MR. SKULL AND MR. DUMBELL.” and 1o matter what phey say ball them out and explain why. Like for inst. suppose Mrxgkull has got 8 spades with 4 honors and ilie ace and king of hearts ahd 3 small clubs and no diamonds. Well say they all agree that they would bid it 3 or 4 spades. Then you call them a name and tell them under thie modern school of bidding the right bid would be four or five diamonds because the opponents in this way is libel to have all the trumps and when they have led them out. your spades is good. whereas if spades was trumps they would be good anyway, but no good for suit. This is the whole secret of teaching .—T_———r sions they promise to learn you is too jmodern bidding tough and the time it takes you toj learn them is too long, like for inst.| it certainly seems like a 10 wks. course was a mighty long seige for a $20.00 per wk. shoe seller~to go, through with before the directors of | the Co. calls him in and forces the | presidency on him at $50,000 per an- | num. N 2 . £ % * SL'RELY the people that runs the schools could think of easier ways than that for ye average wage carner to hop up amongst the pluto- crats and they would be doing man kind a whole lot bigger favor if they would -pick out a couple well paid professions which a man could mas- latest. 1 suppose the school people will claim they ain't mo such profession. Well friends off hand and without giveing the matter serious thought. what about the profession of auction bridge teacher? Here is a profession that it looks to me like it was just a nack and everybody that can shuflle cards can make this their life pro- fession by just mastering a few es- sentials which 1 would guarantee to teach them in one % hr. lessen if I had the time and space. As it is I offer the suggestion to the school people for what it is worth and will merely give a hint of a cou- ple essentials which the pupil would half to master before they could hang out their shingle as a teacher and go over big. To begin with “the man that is learning to teach bridge would halt to master the names of all the big bridge teachers in the U. S. of which they’s probably about a dozen. He would half to learn their names so as when the pupils asked what he thought of them and their methods he ter in one lesson or one wk. at the| {80t it we may as well lay down th to just give the pupil one shock after another. After you have learned them bid- ding, ask one of them to play a hand and the first play he makes shock him. Like suppose Mr. Bone is going to play the hand at hearts and the first lead is the king of clubs and Mr. Bone kas got the ace and he takes the trick with it. 2 . “Listen” you say. “that is where you should of slapped on your trey of dia- monds 80 as to not leave the opponent~ know where the ace of clubs was at.” “But listen” Mr. Bone will say, “in the first place diamonds ain’t trump and.in the 2d. place I had A\cluh and y it > you say, “if you have.go! te play a card just because yow hav: whole hand and deal over/” The idear in a nut sheil is fo sprins sensation after sensation till you: bridge lessons has becgme the talk oi the town. And when you have go everybody thing they don't need ne more lessons, the next trick i t make a announcement that the N. Y whist club has changed all the rules and people will balf to learn the game lall over again, maybe playing duece: wild or useing 2 blue decks at once. This is all the kpace T can devote tc | this subject ut this time but anybods !can follow out the scheme along tin |same gen. lines and the first corre Ispoflden! school that takes it up wil make themselfs a bbl. of money i their pupils both rich and happy. Making Coke Suitable For Household Fue: RENDERING coke available for heating purposes in domesti Stoves and hearths Is a novel sugges- tion. It has not hitherto been prac- ticable to do this, because coke burn: too quickly and with too intense a could compliment the different ones in an intelligent way. * % ¥ ¥ R inst. suppose you have hung out your shingle and your first class is made up of 3 pupils named Mr. Bone and Mr. Skull and Mr. Dumbell. Well you set them down to a table and ask them if they have ever read any works on bridge. “Oh yes” says Mr. Bone, “I have read a book on modern bidding by Prof. Skoozle thy <reat Baltimore expert.” “Listen” you say, “Wam not the kind of a man that would say any- thing derogatory in regards to a rival expert, but the man that calls him self Prof. Skoozle plays bridge with 3 dice and a parchesi board. Further and more his mother was part ape and not only that but when he was 4 yrs. old he cut off his brother Loule’s ears because Louie stole his chewing tobacco. v “The only trouble with, Skoozle is that he, learned his bridge_dureing the 43 yrs. he was locked up and 'the deck the warden loaned him only had 29 cards.” . v “Well” says Mr. Skull, “how abou Prof. Weasel the Boston master?” . “Listen” you say, “I suppose you have read Weasel's book on the busi- ness double. Now I don't know noth- ing against Weasel personly, but'I do' deck 3f cards by walking euchre foursome on’ Beacon street.and, shooting down 4 old ladfes. and a watch dog and he learned the game with euchre deck and when he opened up his bridge class he had to ask Fis first puplls if you deal face down: or up. “He had a quarrel with one of the pupils and the last named pulled a gun and blowed Weasel's brains out but he kept right on teaching. He was recently arrested in Boston. for legs and.arms in the revolution. . “When he is playing for ‘money he always deals himself 14 cards and in regards to his knowledge of the game, why I played partners with him one night and he doubled my. bid of & clubs and set me 1,200, his own part- ner.” ! * ok ok K . FHEN the pupils has named all the happen to know that he got his-first | MO in on a|OF assaulting 2 guy that hid lost.both | heat. Damage is also done to stoves and hearths. . The rapid combustion calls also for more frequent replen- ishing of the fire. An interesting method of overcom- ing these difficulties and making coke a suitable fuel has been worked out. The coke, preferably of medium size. is introduced into a liquid mass which contains, fixed in water, a mixture of about thirty parts of coal dust and twenty parts of loam. The mass is well stirred with the coal and is ab- sorbed greedily by the highly porous coke, so that all pores are filled with this mixture. According to its size, coke is left from twelve to twenty- four hours in this bath, and after it has been removed it is treated with a mass, also composed of cogl-dust, loam and water, but less-diquid than the other bath. The coal dust and loam may be employed in equal parts and may be mixed to a thick ‘paste with the thick sediment from the previous bath. The coke is stirred |into this paste with a shovel or by the use of a revolving drum until the mass has formed a complete coat- ing on thg coke. The lumps, after they have been slightly drled, are preferably powdered with pure coal lust to improve their appearance. The dust introduced into the coke by .the bath and the coating Is claim- ed to serve as a substi for the fuel substances which have been re- ved from.the coke, while the loam some other non-combustible earth will prevent too rapid a combustion. The drying is sreferably performed in the open air. - Queer Explosion. A QUEER s.rt of an explosion of a small glass tube having walls half a millimeter in thickness and containing twenty-five ‘milligrams of the purest radium bromide was re- ported by a French physicist. The ‘tube. had *been in use for eleven months. At the time of the explosion it had just been remobed from a bath of liquid afr. A loudl' report accom- panied the explosion, which occurred in a dark room, and the glass was scattered all through the room in al- most microscopic particles, -and the scattered radium shown in the dark- ness like a starry sky. culated that the pressure in the tube must have been equal to at least different experts and you have twenty atmospheres, and it ,is sup- give them each a boost, why finely | posed to have been due to the evolu- you deal out a test hand and ask the | tion of gaseous decomposition prod- boys how each of them would bid it | ucts frum the radlum.”