“What do you mean?”
“I mean that it may be Casino money, or it may be an exact imitation. When I say exact I mean so perfect that not even an expert with a magnifying glass can tell the difference. You couldn’t even call it a counterfeit, for it may be a duplication of Casino money. Don’t you see what they’re up against? Since the war they can’t play with silver and gold. They’ve got to issue these damn things and any crook can make them. Once they’re in circulation who’s going to tell them from the genuine ones?”
“But can they do nothing to check it?”
“What can they do? If it was a case of the big blue hundred franc chips they might keep some sort of tabs on them. They are all numbered and the numbers only run up to ten thousand. But when you come to the louis counters there must be about a million of them and they have no distinctive mark of any kind. It’s them that make the Casino people such an easy mark. You see notices all over the place imploring you to cash in before you leave the building, but half of the players don’t do it. They take the chips away in their pockets. They are used around the town like cash; they are accepted as payment for hotel bills. It’s impossible to keep track of them. Why, they say there are over a hundred thousand francs worth of false counters in circulation right now. And the number’s increasing every day. There’s a gang hard at work this very minute shooting them out. I tell you, son, it’s one of the slickest gangs that ever hit this dump. No one knows who they are. I may be one of them. You may be one of them.”
“Thank you.”
“Oh, I’m speaking just to demonstrate my point. No one knows anything about any one else in this place. For all I know you may be in the pay of the police, or for all you know I may be. Between friends, though, I’m neither a crook nor a detective, but just a common or garden boob—like yourself.”
“They must be worried, the outfit upstairs?”
“Yes, I guess they’re lying awake nights, some of ’em. For don’t you see, a man can play with the counterfeit chips, and if he loses, no matter. But if he wins they pay him real chips and he is in right. He goes on calmly playing with the bank’s own money. Oh, it’s a cinch! And the point of the joke is that there is no law against it. You’re not counterfeiting money, you’re counterfeiting counters. And for gambling purposes, too. Why, if they found you out, I don’t believe they could legally do anything to you. Anyway they would never bring such a case into court. They ain’t seeking publicity of that kind. Nop, the worst they could do would be to fire you over the frontier and take care you never came back. I tell you I rather admire the bunch that are putting this thing over. If I was broke and desperate, I’d do the same.”
“And what do you suppose the Casino crowd are doing about it?”
“Everything they can. Taking away the cards of every one they suspect. Watching us all. Krantz is a cute one. It’s only a question of time before he gets on.... By Christopher! pipe that man coming out of the Rooms. That man’s your double; that’s the Honourable Paul Vulning.”