Castelli nodded. Hugh followed suit.
“Agreed. Now, Vulning, for your rôle! You enter the Casino, I say, at six o’clock precisely, disguised as a Swede. You go straight to the table next to the refreshment room. It has been arranged that a man will rise and give you a place. You will sit for a few minutes, then suddenly, ...” the doctor paused, and took from his pocket a revolver, “you will rise to your feet. You will take this from your pocket, and, holding it to your head, you will fire.... Ah! my friend Vulning, don’t start. It will only be loaded with a blank cartridge. It will do you no harm. Then having fired you will collapse and slip under the table. That’s all you have to do for five hundred thousand francs. Easy, isn’t it?”
“And what happens then?”
“What happens then?...” Doctor Bergius raised both hands exultantly. “Ha! I will tell you. That is the signal. Every one in the rooms will hear the shot and rush to the table. You know them. They will crowd around and push and jostle. They will want to get a glimpse of the suicide. There will be a mob. The attendants will be making frantic efforts to get out the body. Every one’s attention will be distracted.... Then it is that things will begin to happen.”
Doctor Bergius grew more and more impressive.
“We will have a dozen of our own men in the small room with the Opium Dream on the ceiling. Behold! it will be empty but for them. Every one else will have run to see the suicide. Only the croupiers will have remained at their posts. Everything will be easy. Six of our men will hold up the croupiers while the others throw open the windows. If you remember, there are four windows giving on the terrace near the band-stand. My men will be waiting down below. They will swarm up. To protect them I will have a cordon of men running down to the sea. There I will have waiting also two very fast steam launches.”
The doctor seemed to see it all. He spoke as a man inspired.
“After that it will be easy. A rush, a great drive. We will sweep them all before us. They will be like frightened sheep. Think of it! There will be forty of us all armed to the teeth. Can’t you see them flying before us? We will herd them all into the refreshment room. Castelli with twenty men will control the main rooms; Golaz with ten men will take the long room that gives on the terrace; Gamba with another ten will attend to the salon privé. We will shoot down any one that shows the least sign of resistance. There will be panic, confusion, terror. We will pen the croupiers in corners at the revolver’s point. Castelli, Golaz and Gamba will run to the tables and scoop the big notes into bags. We only want the big bills.”
“Hold on!” said Hugh. “What about the mechanism that automatically locks the coffers?”
“We’ve seen to that. An electrician in our pay has put it out of action. Everything has been thought of. In five minutes it will all be over. We will then gather in a band under the big dome, fire a final volley over the heads of the crowd and beat a retreat. Then we will drop from the windows, run to the beach, tumble into the waiting launches and ho! for Italy. It will all be over before any one realizes what has happened. Magnificent, isn’t it?”