“I don’t know about you, but I believe we should steer clear of her for the time being,” Joseph Brambile decided sotto voce, glancing at the attractive redheaded woman whom his companion contrived to indicate while prattling on in a louder tone about the way in which the bubbles from the glass of champagne she had been given were tickling her nose. “Let her make the first move, if there is going to be one.”
“I agree,” Belle Boyd answered, dropping her voice and giving the appearance of nibbling at the gambler’s ear in a flirtatious fashion. “But I hope there won’t be one that could interfere with our plans, because I rather got to like her.”
“Come, Maggie-dear!” Brambile boomed rather than just said, as befitted his well-performed impersonation of Colonel Ebediah F. Culpepper the Third, wondering how the acquaintanceship had occurred, as the curvaceously close-to-buxom redhead—regardless of being expensively dressed and bejeweled—did not strike him as belonging to the social circles in which his companion mingled before the murder of her parents. In fact, she struck him as being a financially successful “lady of the night” indulging in a passion for gambling while possibly hoping to be brought into contact with a wealthy customer. Another solution could be that she was a shill for the house, intended to encourage others to bet on various games, but he did not consider this likely or she would have found some way of warning her employers that Belle and he were not what they were pretending to be. He extricated himself from the girl’s arm and placed his empty glass on the tray of a passing colored servant, who had paused to accept the one she had contrived to drain while engaging in the low-spoken, flirtatious, yet seemingly innocuous conversation. “Let us away and see whereabouts we shall acquire the wherewithal for the little present I promised you.”
Although scrupulously honest himself, Brambile had considered it imperative that he acquire very thorough information about the methods employed by professional cheats. Having faith in his ability where such things were concerned, he was convinced that he could detect any malpractices that were being employed by the staff of the gambling house operated by Martin Jacques and David Hunt. As he had told Colonel Charles Jeremiah Mason when summoned to help discover whether the suspicions regarding the way in which the gambling house was being used to help the Union’s cause were correct, he had never heard of the pair but believed he might be able to provide proof if any existed. He had not anticipated being given the assistance of the beautiful and clearly most competent daughter of his old friends Electra and Vincent Boyd, but had soon become satisfied that her presence would be an asset. What was more, going by all he had heard when she was not present from Captain Alexandre Dartagnan and the little Cockney criminal who clearly revered her, he felt sure she would be far from a burden in need of his protection if trouble should occur.
Memories of how Belle had been prominent in the amateur theatricals often forming part of the entertainment at Baton Royale Manor when he was visiting there and stood out from most of the other performers by virtue of her ability to inject every role she was assigned with realism, the gambler had felt sure she would prove beneficial to him at the gambling house, and that was the reason he had been adamant in the face of Ole Dixie’s opposition. Nor had he had any reason to regret the choice since they arrived. As they started to walk across the big room toward a table where draw poker was being played, watching the way she continued to behave in the manner of somebody with the personality she was giving to her alter ego Magnolia Beauregard, he felt there were professional actresses as well as female participants in confidence tricks and others seeking to lure gullible males by a pretense of featherbrained irresponsibility who could not have bettered her performance.
Feeling certain that there would be nothing he could achieve at any of the tables where poker was the game, Brambile took advantage of the way in which the girl’s deliberately frivolous chatter was continued to such effect that even the younger players—who at other times would probably have shown an interest in her all too openly flaunted physical attributes—directed glances of annoyance her way. Acting in accordance with the instructions she had received, her declaration that she would sit next to him so she could bring him good fortune by kissing the cards he was dealt—which he had told her was anathema to all dedicated aficionados of the game when carried out by kibitzing members of her sex—aroused the hostility to a point where he used it as an excuse for them to move on with a gesture of what appeared to be apology for her conduct from him.
While Belle and Brambile continued the circuit of the various games of chance being played, in addition to maintaining the convincing rendering of her part as his far-less-than-intelligent mistress, she kept darting surreptitious glances at the red-haired woman she knew as Roxanne Fortescue-Smethers, who gave the appearance of not being accompanied by anybody else. What the girl noticed did nothing to relieve her concern over what the outcome of the chance encounter might be. On more than one occasion, she found that she was receiving a similar covert scrutiny that was brought to an end as soon as her own gaze was detected. Deciding that the wisest thing for her to do was to follow the suggestion from her companion, she put the matter from her mind and concentrated upon the work they were in the gambling house to do.
When explaining to Belle what the plan was, because of his expert reading of the possible situation, Brambile had said that he considered his best chance of detecting any malpractices would be at one of the games supervised for the house by a banker. Therefore, knowing it would be expected of Colonel Culpepper, he had done no more than look briefly at the poker games, even though they were being controlled by a dealer who took a percentage of each pot for the running expenses instead of allowing the handling of the cards to be done by the players. Because of this, his knowledge of how dishonest gambling houses operated caused him to assume that there would be no need of cheating tactics for a continuous profit to be made that more than covered the financial outlay involved, since no layout upon which various bets could be made was required and only one man was needed to run things. Furthermore, even if there were other employees present in the guise of players, he knew exposing them would not be so useful for his purposes as elsewhere.
Having similar feelings where the few games of whist were being engaged upon by elderly men—most of whom were senior officers in the Army and Navy—the gambler had had no intention of participating. Therefore, when he was offered a place by a ruddy-faced admiral of advanced years and the remaining players gave indications of expecting him to accept it, Belle provided him with an excuse to decline by producing what in theatrical terms was a piece of brilliant ad-libbing.
“Why, you go right ahead, Third-honey,” the girl said, and waved her right hand languidly toward where a number of younger men, civilian and military, were noisily playing a less demanding type of game. “I’ll just go and entertain myself over there at the birdcage.”
“Thank you for your offer, sir,” Brambile said, showing no sign of the delight he felt over the response from Belle. Rather, he darted a frown redolent of annoyance from her to the young players and back before continuing, “And my apologies for declining, gentlemen, but my inclinations are directed elsewhere tonight.”
“Did I do the right thing?” the girl inquired in another of the whispers disguised as flirtatious behavior while walking away, followed by knowing glances and winks on the part of the men at the whist table that implied the required inferences behind the refusal were being drawn.
“You know you did, you little minx,” the gambler growled, still continuing the pretense of being annoyed over her hint at being willing—even eager—to spend time in company younger than he. “So stop fishing for compliments and keep keeping your eye on your red-haired friend.”
“I wish I could work out what she’s here for, because I’m certain it isn’t just out of a love for gambling, and although she’s alone as far as I can see, she looks far better off than I would expect her to be,” Belle said in the low voice, then raised it to a point where it could be heard by everybody close by and even farther away. “When are we going to start playing, Third-honey?” She paused before going on archly, “At gambling, I mean, of course. And I don’t mean at one of those stuffy games where li’l ole me can’t join in.”
Still concealing his amusement and satisfaction over the way in which the girl was playing her part with such skill, Brambile did not bother to show any more interest in the four tables given over to pinochle. He knew there were ways of cheating at both this game and whist, but discounted the possibility of any being employed on the same general grounds that caused him to dismiss the games of poker. In fact, he believed he would achieve his purpose by concentrating on the two kinds of card games involving the use of a bank controlled by members of the gambling house’s staff.
Although the gambler knew there had been no justification for the apparent concern he had shown over the supposed interest “Magnolia” had displayed in the game frequented by the rowdy younger element, this had not caused him to rule it out. Cheating by loading the three dice that were caused to turn over and over in the rotating wire cage was sometimes practiced at chuck-a-luck. However, the results that accrued could only be attained over a long period, and there was always the danger that more astute players would notice and take advantage of how certain numbers kept showing up more frequently than others by placing bets accordingly. With that in mind, knowing Jacques and Hunt would in all probability follow the example of those who ran most other dishonest gambling houses—by putting their reliance solely on the most favorable percentages offered by the incorrect odds given for the various types of wagers—it was to the bank-operated card games that he intended to devote his attention. Having already made his selection, he guided Belle toward the one upon which he intended to concentrate.
A preference for faro rather than a lack of knowledge where chemin de fer—which had been imported from Europe—was concerned caused the gambler to select the table at which the basically American game was being played for the highest stakes. Following him, regardless of her “Magnolia” behavior remaining in full flower by declaring loudly that she never could stand that foreign game because of all the ciphering of numbers it required, Belle felt a sensation of anticipation and not a little excitement rising as she realized that they were approaching a spot where he hoped to obtain evidence upon which he could make his move. Without deserting her pose for a moment, she met another brief glance from Roxanne without showing the slightest indication of awareness that it was being made. Being vacated by two naval lieutenants whose expressions suggested they were leaving in a worse financial condition than when they had started to play, the place to which her companion guided her was at the opposite end of the long table where the redhead was now sitting.
Because her mother and father had never been addicts of gambling, only mingling with a few people such as Brambile who were, and then never indulging in games of chance, the girl had only a basic idea of how faro was played. xiii Not that she had expected she would have any need to do so at more than the level of a novice as featherbrained as she was purporting to be. Brambile had told her what part she was to play, and because of their simplicity, she felt certain she could carry out his instructions. However, she had also decided to add an embellishment as an experiment with one of the devices given to her by Captain Anatol de-Farge. The ruse she intended to employ was a test of whether the means she had devised for its use would be practical under actual conditions.
On sitting down and studying the way in which the game was being conducted with the eye of a professional well-versed in such matters, Brambile concluded that Jacques and Hunt had either been fortunate not to have had anybody else as knowledgeable as himself among their patrons or succeeded in keeping silent those who were. He only needed one glance at the box from which the cards were being passed out to know he was not in an honest game. Just large enough to hold a full deck of cards, it had a slot in front to allow the dealing of individual cards—apparently one at a time—by a push through a small hole in the top that permitted only a small portion of the back of the one uppermost to be seen. While this ruled out the use of marked cards, as the secret symbols that were needed for the purposes of identification of suit and denomination could not have been seen, he knew they were unnecessary under the circumstances.
From experience acquired elsewhere, the gambler was aware that such open and aboveboard manipulation was not the purpose of the box in use at the table. There was only a hole large enough for a finger to enter. Furthermore, having examined a number of similarly manufactured devices, he was aware that its operation was achieved by pressure on a tiny unnoticeable button that narrowed or widened the slot so either one or two cards at a time could be emitted.
The employment of such a “brace” or “screw” box, as the device was known, could be achieved only by using “Sand Tell” or similarly prepared cards wherein the higher denominations were roughened a trifle on the faces and the lower at the back. When both surfaces that were “sanded” came into flush contact, they could easily be caused to stick together by pressure on the uppermost. Therefore, if the dealer did not want a high or a low denomination to appear next, he only needed to press on the top card and the different widths of the slot allowed him to send out one or two as was required. Since other varieties of bets were available, the use of the contraption did not mean the patrons had no chance of winning. On the other hand, once again the percentages in favor of the house ensured that it received a consistent level of advantage that was enhanced by the cheating being carried out.
By placing his bets on the layout in a seemingly erratic fashion, Brambile ensured that he maintained steady losses augmented by doubling the amount wagered each time the bet failed. At his side, Belle was playing her part as the inept “Magnolia” with a skill he admired, and she too was a winner only on rare occasions. He was amused and impressed by the way in which she conducted a test that she had never mentioned to him. They were seated next to the dealing box, and when he was asked after joining the game to shuffle the deck about to be put into use, she contrived to scan the backs of the cards he let slide from his seemingly clumsy hands through the magnifying lens at the front of the locket she was wearing. She did this in such a fashion that even a person suspicious of her intentions might not have noticed she had opened the front before manipulating the device in a seemingly casual fashion. However, as there were no secret indications of denomination and suit, he knew her attempts were in vain.
After about ten minutes of play, during which she displayed a well-simulated growing annoyance at consistently being a loser, Belle received the signal from Brambile that told her she must commence the next part of the scheme.
“Third-honey!” the girl screeched on receiving the brief nod of the head from the gambler that informed her she was required to carry on with the scheme, at the same time thrusting back her chair and coming to her feet. As she intended, her voice was pitched so it would carry to every corner of the big room. “I do believe we’re being cheated!”
Instantly, a silence that could almost be felt descended over the people present.