The colonel took out his watch and eyed it critically.
"We have just three-quarters of an hour. Did you ever hear of how I broke one of the roulette banks at Monte Carlo?"
"Why, you old reprobate!" exclaimed Fletcher; "you've just told us that you never gambled."
"I merely said that I do not," replied the colonel.
"Broke the bank?" cried Renwood. "You never told me about that."
"I have never told any one. I ought not to tell you—"
"You can't back out of it now," said I.
"Not in a thousand years," echoed Fletcher. "If you took any gold away from Monte Carlo, I want to hear all about it."
"Very well," acquiesced the colonel; "but the tale must not go beyond this armory;" and he looked at me as he said it.
"Oh, I shouldn't mention any names," I declared; "and I should twist it around some."