The Mark of Cain | Page 4

had been a croupier at Monte Carlo. The players, who were all in
evening dress, had scarcely looked up when the strangers entered the
room.

"Brought some recruits, Cranley?" asked the Banker, adding, as he
looked at his hand, "J'en donne!" and becoming absorbed in his game
again.
"The game you do not understand?" said Cranley to one of his recruits.
"Not quite," said the lad, shaking his head.
"All right; I will soon show you all about it; and I wouldn't play, if I
were you, till you know all about it. Perhaps, after you know all about it,
you'll think it wiser not to play at all At least, you might well think so
abroad, where very fishy things are often done. Here it's all right, of
course."
"Is baccarat a game you can be cheated at, then--I mean, when people
are inclined to cheat?"
"Cheat! Oh, rather! There are about a dozen ways of cheating at
baccarat."
The other young men from Maitland's party gathered round their
mentor, who continued his instructions in a low voice, and from a
distance whence the play could be watched, while the players were not
likely to be disturbed by the conversation.
"Cheating is the simplest thing in the world, at Nice or in Paris,"
Cranley went on; "but to show you how it is done, in case you ever do
play in foreign parts, I must explain the game. You see the men first put
down their stakes within the thin white line on the edge of the tabla
Then the Banker deals two cards to one of the men on his left, and all
the fellows on that side stand by his luck. Then he deals two to a
chappie on his right, and all the punters on the right, back that
sportsman. And he deals two cards to himself. The game is to get as
near nine as possible, ten, and court cards, not counting at all. If the
Banker has eight or nine, he does not offer cards; if he has less, he
gives the two players, if they ask for them, one card each, and takes one
himself if he chooses. If they hold six, seven, or eight, they stand; if
less, they take a card. Sometimes one stands at five; it depends. Then

the Banker wins if he is nearer nine than the players, and they win if
they are better than he; and that's the whole affair."
"I don't see where the cheating can come in," said one of the young
fellows.
"Dozens of ways, as I told you. A man may have an understanding with
the waiter, and play with arranged packs; but the waiter is always the
dangerous element in that little combination. He's sure to peach or
blackmail his accomplice. Then the cards may be marked. I remember,
at Ostend, one fellow, a big German; he wore spectacles, like all
Germans, and he seldom gave the players anything better than three
court cards when he dealt One evening he was in awful luck, when he
happened to go for his cigar-case, which he had left in the hall in his
great-coat pocket. He laid down his spectacles on the table, and
someone tried them on. As soon as he took up the cards he gave a start,
and sang out, 'Here's a swindle! Nous sommes volés!' He could see, by
the help of the spectacles, that all the nines and court cards were
marked; and the spectacles were regular patent double million
magnifiers."
"And what became of the owner of the glasses?"
"Oh, he just looked into the room, saw the man wearing them, and
didn't wait to say good-night. He just went!"
Here Cranley chuckled.
"I remember another time, at Nice: I always laugh when I think of it!
There was a little Frenchman who played nearly every night. He would
take the bank for three or four turns, and he almost always won. Well,
one night he had been at the theatre, and he left before the end of the
piece and looked in at the Cercle. He took the Bank: lost once, won
twice; then he offered cards. The man who was playing nodded, to
show he would take one, and the Frenchman laid down an eight of
clubs, a greasy, dirty old rag, with théâtre français de nice stamped on
it in big letters. It was his ticket of readmission at the theatre that they
gave him when he went out, and it had got mixed up with a nice little

arrangement in cards he had managed to smuggle into the club pack. I'll
never forget his face and the other man's when Théâtre Français turned
up. However, you understand the game now, and if you want to play,
we