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Show 7W SiRffii a RfflDRfflMI By ELISOR nammi o O ARCADIA HOUSE PUBLICATIONS WNU SERVICE CHAPTER XI Continued 11 Fifteen minutes later, they were entering the crowded rooms ol the Club Torquay. The scent of expensive expen-sive perfumes, cigarette smoke, and food in the offing, filled the place. Men in dinner coats, women in evening eve-ning gowns sat around the gaming tables, while persons wishing they had seats stood behind them, watching watch-ing the play. Two seats were finally vacated, and Aunt Linnie and Mrs. Bascom hurriedly slipped into them. "Are you going to play?" Miss Cotswell asked Mary over her shoulder. "Heavens, no!" Mary answered, and glanced across the table just in time to see two more people get up, a defeated expression on their tired faces, and Lelia and Balianci slid into their little gilt and rose-velvet rose-velvet chairs. Miss Cotswell opened her evening bag, extracted a fifty dollar bill, and asked the long-faced banker for fifty one-dollar chips. The game went on and on. The placing of new bets before each spin began! The whirl of the wheel! The bouncing of the ball on Black or Red on number twenty-seven! Here, there, until it settled on the winning number. Mrs. Bascom had lost consistently; consistent-ly; had purchased one batch of chips after another; but Aunt Linnie, betting, bet-ting, as she said, "like a piker," had been fairly lucky. Balianci, after a brief time, relinquished re-linquished his seat to Mr. Bascom, and was now standing next to Mary, his moist hand encircling her elbow. Linnie had asked her again and again if she did not wish to play; had even offered her a bunch of counters when an adjacent seat had suddenly been vacated; and again and again, Mary had firmly refused. re-fused. Eventually, however, Linnie had risen from her chair. "Listen, Mary," Ma-ry," she whispered, "I simply have to go to the powder room. Now here are five chips for your very own. Please play them while I'm gone. Hold this seat for me, or someone'll grab it the minute I leave. Whatever you win with them is yours. Go on, darling.". Thus importuned, Mary grudgingly grudging-ly took Linnie' s place at the table. Everybody about her was intent upon placing chips on their chosen numbers or colors before the next turn of the wheel, but Mary, never having played roulette before, just sat there, the chips Aunt Linnie had given her clasped tightly in her hand. "Go on and play," Mrs. Bascom whispered. "They don't like it when people just sit around doing nothing." noth-ing." The "guests" were again placing their bets on numbers or colors; and rousing herself to action, Mary dropped just one of her five chips on Black. Again the croupier spun his wheel, and the ball dropped on Red; bounced out gnd landed on another Red; fitfully leaped out and settled itself comfortably on Black. "You've won!" hissed Mrs. Bascom, who had again placed her chips on a losing number. "Leave it there! It's worth two dollars now." "Just leave it?" Mary inquired breathlessly. "Of course! Leave it on Black." Again the croupier spun his wheel. Again Black won. "It's worth four dollars now," said Mrs. Bascom. "Black's evidently your lucky color!" "Oh, but maybe it won't win again! Perhaps I'd better try a number now!" "Faites votre jeu!" admonished the croupier coldly, and before Mary had time to do anything at all, his wheel had again been turned, and her four dollars' worth of chips had remained, willy-nilly, on Black. Again the bouncing of the ball here and there and again Black won. "Mary This is uncanny! Leave it there, darling. Your chips are now worth eight dollars!" "But it can't go on this way!" Mary demurred. "I ought to stop now. or place those chips on something some-thing else!" "Well, do as you like, but I'm switching to Black." Mary grabbed her chips and looked about the table in search of a magic number. "My birthday's the fourth of April," she told Mrs. Bascom. "I'm playing number four this time. Eight dollars on number four!" The wheel spun. The ball bounced here and there. "You'll be sorry," Mrs. Bascom whispered. "Black'll win! I'm playing on your luck, Mary fifty dollars' worth of chips!" The ball was still bouncing. Then, ..with a spasmodic jerk, it rose in the air, and fell with a brittle thud on number four. "I won again!" Mary cried, turning around and looking at Count Balianci. "How much is it now, Umberto?" Balianci removed a cigarette from his mouth. "Two hundred and eighty dollars, fearatasa, not counting the eight dollars you played." "Two hundred and eighty dollars!" dol-lars!" Mary exclaimed. "Well, it is time for me to stop!" "Don't you dare!" cried Mrs. Bascom, Bas-com, grabbing a fifty dollar bill from her purse, and signaling the banker for more chips. "Play just once more, Mary. If you win this time, you'll really get something worth while." "Faites votre jeu!" the croupier commanded icily. "I want my chips, please," Mary hastily informed the assistant croupier crou-pier nearest at hand; and, with a quick motion of the man's rake, her winnings were deftly deposited in front of her. Mary sat back in her chair in a state of helpless indecision, casting an almost angry look at Mrs. Bascom. Bas-com. "If only that woman would stop urging me on," she told herself, her-self, "I might be able to figure this thing out." The phrase "Two hundred and eighty dollars . . . Two hundred and eighty dollars!" whirled dizzily Mary jumped from her chair. "I'm through!" she announced. around in her mind. "How much that would mean to Dad! Yet, how wonderful it would be to double it!" It was unthinkable, of course, that she should risk one cent of those two hundred and eighty dollars. But why not take one last chance, win or lose, with the eight one-dollar chips? Before she could act on this decision, de-cision, however, the wheel had again been set in motion, and the croupier was now calling out, "Rien ne va plus! " Mary leaned forward, determined not to be caught napping on the next spin. She would have her chips ready when the croupier again gave notice. Suddenly, she realized that she was still gripping in her left hand four of those five original chips which had been Aunt Linnie's gift to her, and, with a feeling of complete com-plete abandon, she added them to her prospective stake. "One more play!" she told herself sternly. "Twelve dollars! Win or lose!" "Faites votre jeu!" came the command. Mary placed her final bet on number num-ber twenty-two. "That's my age," she told Balianci. "Maybe it'll bring me even more luck!" The croupier turned the wheel, and with enchanted eyes, she saw it go around again and again. The ball now clicked on to four; bounced out; now dropped into number seven; sev-en; popped out! Now it bounced up again and then, incredibly enough, settled on number twenty-two. "You've won again, Mary!" Bali anci almost shouted. "Four hundred and twenty dollars!" Mary jumped from her chair. "I'm through!" she announced to the table at large, and the croupier in particular. "Take my chips off! I'm going to cash them!" "Piker!" jibed Mrs. Bascom. "I don't care if I am," Mary retorted. re-torted. "I'd be a fool not to quit now." "Yes, you would, Mary," Aunt Linnie, who had just returned from the powder room, agreed in a low voice. "Cash in!" "I want my chips cashed," Mary told the banker, and her voice trembled trem-bled with excitement. "Oh, Aunt Linnie," Mary breathed, "isn't it just too miraculous?" "Yes, darling," Linnie replied. "I'm very happy for you." Then, turning to Mrs. Bascom and to Balianci, Bali-anci, whose swarthy face was as blank as the croupier's. "We'll see you later in the foyer!" "All right," Mrs. Bascom replied. "I'm nearly through." Balianci bowed, but said nothing. "Come on into the powder room, Mary," Aunt Linnie murmured, "to count your winnings, and regain your equilibrium." "I must have won about seven hundred dollars," Mary whispered as they made their way through the crowded room. "But, Aunt Linnie, it really belongs to you. It was your money I played with." "Fiddlesticks!" said Miss Cotswell. Cots-well. "I gave you those five counters, count-ers, and it was your own good luck that made them win." "Then," said Mary, "you must, at least, take half. If you hadn't given them to me, I'd never have played." "Hush!" commanded Miss Cotswell. Cots-well. "Not another word out of you about my sharing your little fortune. for-tune. Every dime of it is yours! Here's the powder room. Come in and freshen up. You look as if you'd been in a cyclone." In the meantime, Lelia, having lost all that she had intended to play, now relinquished her chair to the gaunt old man who had been standing behind her for the past half hour. Balianci appeared at her side immediately. There was a frown between his brows, and his dark eyes smoldered. "May I have a word with you, Mrs. Ormsby?" he asked, his voice so thick and for eign she could hardly understand him. She glanced at him sharply. Had the man been drinking? "But no," she told herself, "he couldn't have. He's been right in this room ever since we got here." Aloud, she said, "If you like." "Let us move into the foyer," he suggested. "I must ask you something." some-thing." Without a word, Lelia made for the foyer, Balianci at her heels. Once there, she turned about and confronted him. "Well," she said coldly, "what do you want?" "It is this," he began in a low voice. "Why is Mary so extremely excited over winning a few hundred dollars? She acts as if she had gone mad with joy." "Well, why shouldn't she?" Lelia countered. "Seven hundred dollars are not to be sniffed at by anybody, any-body, particularly Mary. She needs that money, Balianci, and she needs it badly." The Italian looked stunned. "But how can it mean so much to her if she is an heiress?" Lelia did not attempt to veil the disdain that she felt for the man. "And where did you get the idea that Mary was an heiress?" Balianci spread his long thin hands, the palms pointing to heaven. heav-en. "But she is Miss CotsweH's niece! Miss Linnie Cotswell's own niece! She dresses exquisitely. She leads a life of luxury!" Lelia regarded Balianci for one long, burning moment. "So, that's why you proposed to Mary," she finally said. "I might have known you had some ulterior motive. Everybody Ev-erybody knows you're a fortune hunter! A gigolo!" "Perhaps it would be better to say opportunist, Mrs. Ormsby." Lelia regarded his smiling face as if it were something venomous. "It's very fortunate for Mary that you've discovered so soon she isn't a moneybag mon-eybag for you to marry." "You mean, then, she has nothing? noth-ing? Absolutely nothing?" "Yes, I mean just that Mary's father is a lawyer in a small town. Mary worked in a book shop until she came to New York to be the guest of her aunt. And, by the way, Miss Cotswell is probably not half as rich as you think. Besides, she expects to enjoy a very happy life for many years to come; and what's more, I don't know that Mary would be her heir even were Miss Cotswell Cots-well to die tomorrow." "Unfortunate," purred Balianci. "Very unfortunate. I am crushed." "Oh, I guess not!" Lelia retorted. "In fact, I think you'll survive very happily. I might even recommend something to speed your recovery." "And that is?" Balianci murmured. "That you book passage on the Iroquois sailing for Havana tomorrow tomor-row noon! I happen to know that Mrs. Ulmstead, widow of the soap-flakes soap-flakes potentate, and her two homely, home-ly, but, oh, so well-endowed daughters, daugh-ters, are listed among the passengers." passen-gers." "Ah, Mrs. Ormsby! How you wrong me! How can you think . . .?" Lelia pushed past him, her head high, her face flaming. "Good night, Count Balianci. You'd better run along now. You haven't a moment to lose." A second later, she joined Linnie and Mary in the powder room. Mrs. Bascom, having lost three hundred dollars, had finally left the roulette table, and was there, too. "Balianci's not feeling well, Mary," Lelia said. "He's asked to be excused." "Oh, all right," Mary replied, thinking, "Maybe, with this nest-egg to see Dad and Mother along for a while, I won't have to marry Balianci Bali-anci or anybody! I'll tell him tomorrow to-morrow that I've changed my mind. Of course, it was never made up! He simply took things for granted. Oh, thank heavens, this happened! Aunt Linnie says she won't take a cent of the money that I earned it all that every bit of it is mine. Seven Sev-en hundred and twelve dollars. What a windfall at this time! I'll send Dad a money-order for six hundred and twenty-five of it tomorrow. tomor-row. Maybe I'd better send him more, yet with Aunt Linnie going away and my being left on my own, I really believe I'd better hold out the remaining eighty-seven in case of an emergency!" CHAPTER XII Mary woke early the next morning, morn-ing, her mind filled with happy thoughts of the money she had won at the Club Torquay. She wondered just how soon she'd dare get up and speed to the nearest branch post-office. post-office. She wanted to get a money-order money-order off to her father as quickly as possible. She wanted, too, to send a note by special delivery to Balianci. She must teU him at once that her apparent acquiescence to his proposal propos-al of marriage, the night before, had been a mistake; that she did not love him; that she could not go through with the thing. Suddenly, the door into the hall opened softly, and Addie's face appeared ap-peared in the wedge. Mary raised her hand as a signal to be quiet, but Addie tiptoed in, holding up to view a Western Union envelope; quietly qui-etly approached Mary's bed, and, without a word, dropped it on the coverlet. Then, just as soundlessly, she made her way to the door and closed it behind her. Mary hoisted herself to a sitting position, and hastily removed the message from its envelope. It was signed, she noted at once, "Umberto "Umber-to Balianci," and it read: FORGIVE ME MY DEAR BUT I FEEL I SPOKE IN HASTE LAST NIGHT AND THAT OUR PLANS HAD BEST BE FORGOTTEN FORGOT-TEN STOP AM SAILING FOR HAVANA TODAY ON THE IROQUOIS. IRO-QUOIS. Mary slowly reread the message; then, forgetting that Lelia was asleep; forgetting everything except that this was quite the funniest thing that had ever happened to her, she burst into laughter. "What's so funny?" Lelia inquired drowsily. "Lei! Are you awake?" "I couldn't very well be asleep after that wild peal of merriment you just let forth! What's it all about, anyhow?" (TO BE CONTINUED) |