CHAPTER XXI.
THE LITTLE HORSES.
The re-opening of the Casino at Dieppe in 1919 was the signal, as some may remember, for an outbreak of gambling for very high stakes. This was attributed partly to the natural reaction of public feeling after the roulette tables and the petits chevaux had been so long hors concours, and partly to the fact that during the war many acquired a taste for speculation who previously had looked upon even a sixpenny lottery as ungodly.
Among the regular frequenters of the Casino during August of 1919 was a very handsome Englishwoman, accompanied almost always by a tall, undistinguished-looking man of middle-age, and by a good-looking, well groomed young fellow of twenty-six or so. Night after night this trio would arrive between eight and nine o’clock, seat themselves whenever possible at the same petits chevaux table, until the Casino closed.
What attracted attention to them was the large sum they invariably staked at every turn of the wheel which set the horses “running”; the recklessness of their play, and their extraordinary luck. Time and again they would come out of the Casino many hundreds, and sometimes many thousands of pounds richer than when they had gone in, and usually an agent de police would meet them at the entrance and accompany them across to their hotel to prevent any possibility of their being robbed.
Dieppe at that time was one of the few French seaport towns which could be visited by English folk without their being compelled first of all to comply with endless formalities, so that English people foregathered there in their thousands. It was not surprising, therefore, that when Jessica and her friends had been a week or two in the town they should suddenly come face to face in the Casino with no other than Captain Preston and his future wife.
Instantly Jessica extended her hand.
“I won’t say it is odd meeting you here,” she exclaimed, as she shook hands with Yootha, “because one does nothing but run across friends all day and every day, but I must say I did not expect to meet you, for I heard you were both in Monmouthshire.”
“We left Abergavenny two days ago,” Yootha answered quickly, “and arrived here last night. Isn’t this a delightful place? I’ve never been here before.”
“Is anybody with you?” Jessica asked.