AT MONTE CARLO
Next day, the wonderful panorama of the Riviera was unfolding itself
before the eyes of the shipowner. The red rocks and the dwarf pines of
the Esterel coves, against which an azure sea lapped in soft caress....
Cannes with its far-flung draperies of white villas.... The proud
solemnity of the Alpes Maritimes thrusting up to the snow-line and
glinting white against the sun.... Fairy bungalows nesting in tropic
gardens and waving welcome with their palm-fronds to the rushing
train.... The Baie des Anges laughing with sky and hills.... The
many-tunnelled cliff-route from Villefranche to Cap D'Ail, where moments
of darkness tease one to longing for the sight of the azure coves dotted
with white-winged yachts and foam-slashed motor-boats.... Europe's
silken, jewelled fringe!
But scenery made no appeal to Lars Larssen. Scenery would not help him
to the attainment of his great ambitions. Scenery was _no use_ to him.
His delight lay in men and women and the using of them. Business--the
turning of other men's energies to his own ends--was the very breath of
his being.
He was glad to reach the hectic crowdedness of the tiny principality of
Monaco--that triple essence of civilization and sensuous luxury. He felt
at home with the big idea that drew the whole world to the gaming tables
to pay homage to the goddess Fortune. For a moment the suggestion came
to him to buy up some beautiful islet and build a pleasure city on it
which should be a wonder of the world. He was making a note of it for
future consideration, when Olive and her father met him on the platform
at Monte Carlo.
"I thought perhaps you would bring John Rivière with you," said Olive
after they had exchanged greetings. A strong desire had sprung up to see
this mysterious relation of Clifford's, and to be balked of any passing
whim was keen annoyance to her.
"Bring a will-o'-the-wisp," answered Larssen.
"Can't you find him?" asked Sir Francis. Larssen shook his head. "Gad,
that's curious. Why doesn't he write? Bad form, you know. But when a
man's lived all his life in the backwoods of Canada, I suppose one can't
expect him to know what's what."
Olive studied the shipowner keenly as they drove to their hotel. His
massive strength of body and masterful purpose of mind, showing in every
line of his face, attracted her strongly. Olive worshipped power, money,
and all that breathed of them. Here was the living embodiment of money
and power.
After dinner that evening all three went to the Casino. The order had
been given to Sir Francis Letchmere's valet that he was to bring over to
the Salle de Jeux any telegram or 'phone message that might arrive.
Larssen was keenly interested in the throng of smart men and women
clustered around the tables. Here was the raw material of his
craft--human nature. Moths around a candle--well, he himself had lit
many candles. The process of singeing their wings intrigued him vastly.
Olive explained the game to him with a flush of excitement on her
cheeks. He noted that flush and made a mental note to use it for his own
ends. She took a seat at a roulette table and asked him to advise her
where to stake her money. Sir Francis preferred _trente-et-quarante_,
and went off to another table.
"I can see you've been born lucky," she whispered to Larssen.
"I'll try to share it with you," he answered, and suggested some numbers
with firm, decisive confidence. Though he had keen pride in his
intellect and his will, he had also firm reliance on his intuitive
sense. With Lars Larssen, all three worked hand in hand.
Olive began to win. Her eyes sparkled, and she exchanged little gay
pleasantries and compliments with the shipowner.
"We've made all the loose hay out of _this_ sunshine," said Larssen
after an hour or so, when a spell of losing set in. "Now we'll move to
another table."
Olive obeyed him with alacrity. She liked his masterful orders. Here was
a man to whom one could give confidence.
"Five louis on _carré_ 16-20," he advised suddenly when they had found
place at another table.
Without hesitation she placed a gold hundred-franc piece on the
intersecting point of the four squares 16, 17, 19, 20. The croupier
flicked the white marble between thumb and second finger, and it whizzed
round the roulette board like an echo round the whispering gallery of St
Paul's. At length it slowed down, hit against a metal deflector, and
dropped sharply into one of the thirty-seven compartments of the
roulette board. A croupier silently touched the square of 16 with his
rake to indicate that this number had won, and the other croupier
proceeded to gather in the stakes.
Forty louis in notes were pushed over to Olive.
At this moment Sir Francis' valet came up to Larssen with a telegram in
his hand. The latter opened and scanned it quickly.
"What is it?" asked Olive.
"A tip to gamble the limit on number 14," replied Larssen smilingly.
Olive placed nine louis, the limit stake, on number 14, and two minutes
later a pile of bank-notes aggregating 6300 francs came to her from the
croupier's metal box.
"You're Midas!" she whispered exultantly.
"Midas has a hurry call to the 'phone," he answered.
For the telegram was from Sylvester, and it read:--
"Fourteen replies to hand. Fourteen J. Rivière's scattered about
France."