[ CHAPTER I. ] AT ZATON’S
[ CHAPTER II. ] AT THE GREEN PILLAR
[ CHAPTER III. ] THE HOUSE IN THE WOOD
[ CHAPTER IV. ] MADAME AND MADEMOISELLE
[ CHAPTER V. ] REVENGE
[ CHAPTER VI. ]
[ CHAPTER VII. ] A MASTER STROKE
[ CHAPTER VIII. ] A MASTER STROKE—Continued
[ CHAPTER IX. ] THE QUESTION
[ CHAPTER X. ] CLON
[ CHAPTER XI. ] THE ARREST
[ CHAPTER XII. ] THE ROAD TO PARIS
[ CHAPTER XIII. ] AT THE FINGER-POST
[ CHAPTER XIV. ] ST MARTIN’S EVE
[ CHAPTER XV. ] ST MARTIN’S SUMMER


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UNDER THE RED ROBE

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CHAPTER I. AT ZATON’S

‘Marked cards!’

There were a score round us when the fool, little knowing the man with whom he had to deal, and as little how to lose like a gentleman, flung the words in my teeth. He thought, I’ll be sworn, that I should storm and swear and ruffle it like any common cock of the hackle. But that was never Gil de Berault’s way. For a few seconds after he had spoken I did not even look at him. I passed my eye instead—smiling, BIEN ENTENDU—round the ring of waiting faces, saw that there was no one except De Pombal I had cause to fear; and then at last I rose and looked at the fool with the grim face I have known impose on older and wiser men.

‘Marked cards, M. l’Anglais?’ I said, with a chilling sneer. ‘They are used, I am told, to trap players—not unbirched schoolboys.’