Part 38 (2/2)
”You are to marry Max!” Liane exclaimed, surprised.
”Yes. We have known each other some years now, and as I have recently won sufficient money which, invested, will bring us in a modest income, we have agreed to marry and relinquish gambling. One of our promises to each other is that after marriage neither of us shall enter the Casino on any pretext whatsoever. I shall certainly keep it, and I feel a.s.sured that Max will.”
”I'm sure you have our heartiest congratulations,” Captain Brooker said, smiling. ”I've known Max a long time, and although once he has been one of us and an outsider, he is, nevertheless, at heart a gentleman.”
Mariette, known as ”The Golden Hand,” and believed by _habitues_ of Monte Carlo to be thoroughly unscrupulous, and an adventuress of the very worst type, was now an entirely different person to the woman who flung down her gold so recklessly upon the tables. Her life had not been altogether blameless, nevertheless there was still sufficient generosity, tenderness, and love within her heart to render her a devoted wife with a man who would love and cherish her.
”Make your offer to marry me as soon as you wish,” she laughed. ”You know what my reply will be.”
”A reply,” he said, ”that will bring me fifty thousand pounds.”
”You are indeed my friend, Mariette,” Liane said, stretching forth her hand. ”Forgive me for believing that you were my enemy.”
The other grasped it warmly, answering,--
”I have forgiven all--everything save the terrible offences of the man who has fled, offences before G.o.d and man that are beyond atonement.”
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
RED AND BLACK.
The fugitive was already out of sight when his pursuer gained the road.
In the crooked streets of Monaco, with their dark arches, narrow pa.s.sages and steep inclines, it is easy to evade pursuit, and Zertho, to whom the place was well-known, was fully aware that if he could gain the foot of the rock he could get clean away. He crushed his hat on his head and ran swiftly as a deer.
Max knew the road the accused man must take, and dashed after him, hatless, as fast as his legs would carry him. Suddenly, however, he entered a crooked lane, only to find himself in a _cul-de-sac_. He quickly retraced his steps and gained the square in front of the Palace, but by this time the man he was pursuing was already at the foot of the rock. Rus.h.i.+ng up to the wall of the fortifications he peered over, and saw far below the fugitive spring into a open cab and drive rapidly towards La Condamine. To overtake him now was impossible. The police must take up the chase.
He ran back to the Villa Fortunee to tell Mariette and the others of his failure and obtain her sanction to invoke the aid of police, while the other sat bolt upright in the cab, staring straight before him, not daring to glance behind. Yet all seemed peaceful in that calm sunset hour. Along the boulevard around the bay he drove at a spanking pace, but in front the road to Monte Carlo rose steeply, and soon they were only travelling at walking pace.
”Quicker!” he cried, impatiently to the driver; and with an oath added: ”Whip your horses! Quicker!”
”Impossible, m'sieur,” the man answered without turning towards him.
The moments that went by during that slow ascent seemed hours. Each instant he expected to hear loud cries and demands as the police bore down upon him. He knew that his face must betray the deadly terror that held him paralysed. Like a fox going to cover he had headed instinctively for Monte Carlo, but knew not how he was about to act, or whither he was going. He knew that he must fly to save his liberty and life, and had a vague idea that if he crossed into Italy the pursuit would thereby be delayed.
”Where to, m'sieur?” inquired the driver, when at last they gained the brow of the hill.
”The Casino! Quick!” he answered, after an instant's reflection. Then to himself, he muttered behind his set teeth: ”One throw. My last chance. Life or death!”
He sprang from the cab, tossed the man a ten-franc piece, and ran up the red-carpeted steps to the atrium, showed his white ticket to the two doorkeepers, and entered the hot, garish gaming-rooms.
The atmosphere was troubled, faint with the thousand perfumes exhaled from the tightly-laced corsets of the women. Charming and pretty as many of the latter are, they are, nevertheless, designedly or unconsciously, the most active and dangerous companions at the tables.
Their influence upon their fellow-players is always on the side of the bank.
Queen Roulette is the most absorbing and most imperious of all mistresses. The most determined, young or old, audacious or timid, find themselves powerless to resist her, for when the fatal fascination creeps upon them she engages their brain, saps their spirit, holds captive their senses, breaks asunder their resolutions, and lures them to their ruin. She is indeed an enchantress infernal.
The jingle and chatter jarred upon his unstrung nerves. For a moment he stood nauseated, half-dazed by the thousand memories, hideous spectres of a guilty past, that crowded upon him.
<script>