So they fell to discussing this most agreeable theme, and indulging in visions of vast gains. Chaytor did not know what his companion knew--that the "system" discovered by Gilbert would have been really a certain thing but for one combination or series of figures which might not be drawn for many days together.
It was upon the chance of this series not presenting itself that Gilbert relied; if they escaped it, their purses would be filled; if it occurred, it was not his money that would be lost.
No time was wasted at Monte Carlo: within an hour of their arrival they commenced to play, and before they retired to rest they counted their winnings.
"Are you satisfied?" asked Gilbert gaily.
"No," replied Chaytor, feverishly fingering the gold and notes. "We must win more, more!"
"We will. The world is at our feet. Let us divide."
This was a part of Gilbert's plan; the winnings of each day were to be divided; thus he made sure of gain to himself, whatever might happen to his partner. For some days their operations prospered, and then came the inevitable bad experience. They sustained a loss, another, another; a large sum had to be staked to recover their losses, and that also was swept in by the croupiers, upon whose stony faces ruin and despair produced no impression. Chaytor stormed and reviled, and Gilbert listened with calmness to his reproaches. In desperation the younger man took the game in hand himself, and plunged wildly at the tables, Gilbert looking on in silence. The result was that, after a fortnight had passed, Chaytor had lost ten thousand pounds of his ill-gotten wealth.
Nearly half the fortune of which he had obtained fraudulent possession was gone. With a gloomy countenance he counted what remained; his heart was filled with bitterness towards his companion, whose design it was to lead Chaytor on step by step until his ruin was complete. For a little while Chaytor contemplated flight, but so unwearying was the watch kept on him by Gilbert, that, had he nerved himself determinedly to his design, he could not have put it in execution. Besides, the thought of Annette held him back. No, he would not fly, he would return to the Villa Bidaud, he would marry Annette, he would compel Gilbert to make restitution of his niece's fortune, and then he would bid farewell for ever to his evil genius and take Annette to America, where he would commence a new life.
"I have had enough of this," he said to Gilbert. "If I followed your counsels any longer I should land in the gutter."
"Not so, not so," responded the unruffled Gilbert; "if you were guided by me you would land in a palace. See, now, I kept a record of the numbers while you were so recklessly staking your money on this chance and that, throwing away, like a madman, the certainty I offered you. You know my system; sit down with these numbers before you, follow them, back them according to my notation, and discover how you would have got back all your losses, and been in the end a large gainer. I leave you for an hour to the lesson I set you."