[CHAPTER XII.]
AN INFAMOUS SNARE.
A young fool—Envy and covetousness—Aphorisms—Insinuations—Confidences—Influencing the game—Honest men are sometimes rogues—Mushrooms and cheating—The Greek moralist—Example of cheating—Initiation—Maxims and manipulations—Temptation—The Belgian capitalist—The cartes biseautées—Easily won—An insolvent gambler—Comedy—The Greek in despair—An infamous scene—Dishonour—Ruin—The faithless trustee—Separation of the philosophers—A virtuous Greek—Golden hopes—A beard again—A demi-millionaire.
The Society of Philosophers generally made Calais the centre of their operations, for the reason that they were often summoned by Achille Chauvignac, who, as my readers may remember, had been the originator of the plot at St. Omer.
Chauvignac was especially indefatigable in such affairs, as, without running the slightest risk, he always shared largely in the profits of these transactions.
So unprincipled was he, that he continually selected his most intimate friends for his victims.
Each gambler was classed as to his means, and also, as to whether he was likely to allow himself to be plucked without remonstrance.
Thus, M. B— was valued at three thousand francs; M. P— at six thousand; M. C— was not worth much, being a bad player; but, at any rate, they put him down at a thousand francs.
The one who was considered the best, that is, the richest dupe, was M. F—, who was estimated at from fifteen to twenty thousand francs.
Andréas and Raymond had gone the round of all the clubs of Calais and Boulogne, but they dared not venture to St. Omer, for fear of being recognised. They sent, in their place, however, two clever sharpers, who originally came from Venice, which city was formerly supposed to be the cradle of roguery.
The Society of Philosophers would not certainly have placed the implicit confidence they did, in these two delegates, had it not been, that they were under the immediate surveillance of Chauvignac, who not only looked after them himself, but arranged a system of espionnage between the two Greeks, so that each of them was overlooked by his companion. His plan was, to address one of them privately thus: