The result was that the croupier paid me out three times my total stake!
Just now I heard the flaxen-haired croupier call out 'zero!
Rien ne va plus," proclaimed the croupier as once more he invited the company to stake, and prepared to turn the wheel.
At length, completely absorbed in the game, she burst out: "Alexis Ivanovitch, did not the croupier just say that 4000 florins were the most that could be staked at any one time?
A croupier counted out innumerable notes, and sundry noble and glorious gold plaques of a hundred francs each.
The croupier threw a five-franc piece to join his own, and Henry, with elaborate calmness, picked both pieces up.
The croupier at the end of the table manoeuvred it with his rake, and called out to the centre: 'Billet de mille francs.
When sixteen thousand francs of paper lay before Henry, thecroupier addressed him sharply, and he gathered, with Cosette's assistance, that the maximum stake was twelve thousand francs.
He then discovered the money was his, by the croupier asking him if he wished to stand on the whole sum; but he never gave the banque another chance, for he picked it up, and quickly went off with it.
Ethel hesitated, and as she did so thecroupier swung the capstan and spun the ball.
It takes a croupierat 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.
There was a croupierthree or four seats away from the girl.
Dividing the long table in the centre was the wheel itself, and the croupier in charge of it was already fingering the ivory ball.
The wheel was turning again, and everyone watched to see what the unperturbed figure by the croupier would do.
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.
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.
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.
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.
They completed the transfer of my lieutenancy in two days, and then, in their superabundant humanity, offered me the place of croupier in an inferior house which they kept near Hanover Square.
Soothed by the magic influence of my virtuous Harriet, instead of calling the croupier to account, I wrote to the proprietors of the bank, stating my ruined condition, and my readiness to sell my commission and pay them what I could.
Their stock-in-trade consisted in a Roulette wheel, a few thousand francs, and an old and skilful croupier of Frascati, who knew a great deal about the properties of cards.
In the same year, the croupier at the Countess of Buckinghamshire's one night announced the unaccountable disappearance of the cash-box of the Faro bank.
The affair was very neatly managed, and would succeed in nearly every case, especially if the croupier is, as is most probable, always on the side of the ladies.
The one who causes the other croupier to turn round seems somewhat extravagantly dressed; but these costumes have been frequently worn within the last two years both at Baden and Hombourg.
The whole thing was a systematically-planned robbery, and very possibly the croupier was a confederate.
An appeal to the croupier only produced a shrug of the shoulders and regret that he had not seen who staked the money, an offer to stop the play, and a suggestion that I should find it very difficult to prove it was my stake.
Near where thecroupier sat was a worn place in the cloth with a small ivory button in the center.
And when anyone was winning largely at the wheel the croupier would press this little button, which stopped the wheel where he wished, until the winner was discouraged from playing further.
It was certainly improbable, Sylvia thought, that the croupier had understood much of Richepin's verse, but the effect of the little recitation was excellent because it made him choke.
Suddenly thecroupier with an angry movement swept a pile of money from the table.
At that moment the wheel stopped, and the croupier cried the number and the color in all their combinations.
The ball dropped with a sudden click, the croupier announced that number five had won, and at once raked in the two thousand francs among others.
Next moment a dozen persons followed her play, staking their cent-sous and louis upon the spot where she had asked the croupier at the end of the table to place her stake.
Then a few seconds later the croupier cried: "Rien ne vas plus!
The green-covered gaming table, at which she was sitting next to the end croupier on the left-hand side, was crowded.
But on hearing of it the next day from a croupier Mademoiselle merely shrugged her shoulders, and said: "I warned him to return to Paris.
She heard the croupier announce the winning number and saw the rakes at work dragging in the stakes to swell the bank.
This table is covered with a fine grass mat and surrounded on three sides with benches for the players, while on the fourth side sit the croupier and the banker or shroff.
The croupier has immediately in front of him a pile of bright copper cash, perhaps two pints.
When the bank won, the croupier permitted a slight shade of disappointment to flash over his face, fading into an expression of apology for taking the stakes.
All my disgust for the croupier returned in an instant.
About it were seated ten people, the croupier in the middle.
Here the croupier rose from the bench, looked critically over his case of cigarettes, selected one carefully, and began buttoning his coat as if to go.
Two of the group interested me at once,--the croupier and a woman who sat within three feet of me.
But when this strange token dropped shimmering beside him he stood like one transfixed, then bent over to stare, and presently passed a signal to the fat croupier across from him.
Another banker, bald-headed and not in the least superior, was now in charge at roulette, and I noticed that the fat croupier had also been replaced.
For an instant I thought there was going to be a "scene," but the Marquise said such a cochon as the croupier wouldn't dare to strike the Vicomte, who it seems spends the time he can spare from automobiling in Paris in duelling.
The Vicomte told Blanche that he believed the croupier tampered with the machinery and could make any horse win he liked, and the croupier heard.
The croupier with his rake pushed the money on to seventeen.
Another croupier with his rake pulled it off again .
Make your game, gentlemen," said thecroupier monotonously.
The croupier indolently advanced his rake and swept my whole pile with others into the bank!
The croupier looked bored, which was the way a croupier should look.
He went back to the roulette wheel, got around behind it and nudged the croupier gently.
He went over to a roulette table and stared the croupier straight in the eyes.
Nobody objected to that, either, the croupier still looked bored; and the two women and the one man waited patiently for the Day of Judgment.
Even the voice of the croupier sounded as if it were strangely dulled and thickened in the atmosphere of the room.
By his side, thecroupier raked in whole heaps of gold and silver.
Other people put their stakes unpleasantly close to his; coins rolled in casually, here and there, and were fixed by the croupier with his stick as voices behind directed.
When he saw the croupier pay out seventy-two good gold coins on top of his own piece, Franz was almost beside himself.
But it was plain that his good fortune stayed at his elbow tonight, for opposite to him the croupier was arranging with extraordinary deftness piles of bank-notes in the order of their value.
The croupier began to count Wethermill's winnings, and Ricardo, curious to know whose small, delicately gloved hand it was which had brought the game to so abrupt a termination, leaned forward.
He was still vaguely puzzling his brains to fix the place when the croupier finished his reckoning.
Even as Ricardo looked Wethermill turned up "a natural," and the croupier swept in the stakes from either side.
Once there, however, a courteous reception awaited him, and the urbane croupier moved his own august chair to make room for the honored guest.
A moment more, and the low voice of the croupier proclaimed that red had lost!
The denomination is not sufficient, sir," the albino Sirian croupier said indifferently.
Nick," cried the croupier in his hard, monotonous note.
The croupier still stood at the head of the table, rake in hand, crying the main and proclaiming the odds.
I know not myself what the odds are, but the regular player knows, and the croupier calls them; in some cases the bystanders may not bet against the bank, but I do not know these cases.
The wheel spun, the ball rolled, and the croupier called again, "Seventeen, black.
As it was, the croupier met with a most severe accident, having cut his thigh so deeply as to cause a most serious hemorrhage.
Well, he would keep his vow: he would go where the croupier made the die roll through the coils of a snake, and where he might play without touching any thing.
Illustration: The croupier made the die roll through the coils of a snake.
As I drew closer to the table I could mark that the stillness was even more remarkable; not a voice was heard but of the croupier of the table, as with ceaseless monotony he repeated: 'Faites le jeu, messieurs!
The impassive coldness of the croupier as he pronounced his habitual exordium seemed to move the old man's impatience, as he rattled his fingers hurriedly among the gold and muttered some broken words of German between his teeth.
