A “ STRAIGHT” CARD PARTY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVII, Issue 11188, 9 February 1897, Page 3

A “ STRAIGHT” CARD PARTY.

(licensed Victuallers' Gazette.) When I left Brussels and came to settle in London 1 mado up my mind to go straight. It was a narrow escape at Brussels ; but the men at the club knew nothing and could find out nothing. The whisper went round that I was a dangerous man to play cards with, and so I was, for I always had a good nerve, and was quite cool whether I won or lost. On arriving in town I met a lot of people I had known abroad, and had no difficulty in getting in the Round Table Club. It was not exactly a gambling club, but they played cards there for nice stakes. It was some time before I played at all. I wanted to know tho men better to find out what sort of stakes suited them, and whether I should have a fair chance with even luck. They were a jolly lot, who played a good deal higher than they could afford, that is, the most persistent of them did. There were many very rich members, but they only played occasionally. Picquet, ecarte, and poker were the principal games. I knew the two latter well, poker I learnt from a Yankee, who used to live out of it on the pleasure steamers, before the authorities stopped the business, and he was forced to leave the States and come over to Brussels. He called himself “Captain” then. Captain Green, and he used to talk very wisely when we were alone together, about making a certainty of winning, but I would not lend myself to anythin gin the way of cheating I told him. As a fact, I once took lessons from a juggler in sleight-of-hand tricks, but I was a failure, I should never make a manipulator ho told me. But the captain and I went partners sometimes, and 1 must say I was very lucky with him. Either ho won more than I lost, or I won more than he lost, so there was always a balance to divide. However, I never discovered his system, and I never wanted to learn it. “ There was no necessity,” he said.

When I had made several nice acquaintances at the club, I began to take a hand at poker occasionally. It was difficult enough to get along. If I won, I very often had to wait a week or two for tho money. If I lost I always paid punctually, so that when I made it rather hot for those who did not settle with me, no one could say I owed anything. One fatal night a lot of City stockbrokers sat down to play 100. I took a hand, and the game got very high indeed. Two or three players dropped out, but before the end of the evening I owed a German Jew four hundred pounds. “ Will you give me a cheque now,” he said “or send it round in the morning ?” “ The day after to-morrow,” I said, “if you don’t mind. I’ve had a bad time lately.” Where the money was coming from I did not know. I racked my brain to think of some way of getting the balance. I went to one or two money-lenders, but they laughed at me, and, as a dernier rcssort, I made up my mind to go to Brighton to see if I could get a «game there in tho meanwhile. Members of the club in London were honorary members of tho Players Club at Brighton, and there were several good men who played whist, and even baccarat, down there. But luck was dead against me. I lost another fifty on the first night, and just as I was coming out of the club whom should I meet but Captain Green from Brussels. Perhaps in good times I should not have spoken to him, but now I felt that he might help me over my troubles. I told him how I scood, and how I wanted two hundred and fifty pounds to save my credit. “ I wish I had your chances in amongst them,” he said. “ Can’t yon put ihe. in, and we’ll work together ?” But he could not be a member and visitors were not allowed in the card-room. All this.l pointed out; but he laughed and said that he did not want to play in clubs wit&a dozen people looking on. Could not I get a few friends to dinner, and propose a quiet game afterwards at the hotel ? “ And, by the bye,” he said, “ if you can get one good man who can lose a thousand, Ft will be better than half-a-dozen who go away and talk about their losses. Curiously enough I happened to meet Thomson, who used to he in the Dragoons, and he asked me where I was going to dine. I invited him to dine with us, and I asked thecaptain.whotelegrapheduptoLondonfor one of his friends, Lieutenant Hanton, and Thompson brought a friend, so we were five altogether. The Captain did not want to be introduced under his own name, and I had rather qualms about giving him a false one ; but, after all, probably no one knew him in England, so he called himself Captain Macbeth, of the Bengal Heavy Cavalry. We had an awfully jolly evening, and a few games of ecarte afterwards in my sitting room at the hotel. Macbeth —that is Green—told me to lay against him and his friend all the time, but cnly for small stakes, no matter how high he played. I did not see how I was to get my money back that way, but I took his advice. I lost a hundred, and Macbeth and Lieutenant Hanton won between them something like fifteen hundred, for which Thompson gave a cheque. Well, well, I could not refuse when next day the captain handed over nearly five hundred pounds as my share. This set me straight again, and I made up my mind to have no more transactions of the sort. But again was luck against me.

About a year passed away, and I managed to get on pretty well, until another plunging night came, and I got broke once moret I had called on Captain Green a few times in the interim. He had a charming little wife, who played and sang, and we used to practise at playing cards. He often suggested parties, and I got up one or two successfully; but having been elected a member of the Lambkin Club I wanted to keep as square as possible. However, I was hound to have some money, and there were loads of it about. I was a little frightened how to act; but finally I asked one Brown to dine with me at the Lambkin, and go to the theatre afterwards. He accepted, and at the last moment I wrote to tell him I was seedy and could not go out. Would he dine at ray chambers instead P Of course he came. Green was there as Captain Macbeth, of course, and we had another good night. About twelve hundred pounds he won, and I lost two hundred. Brown gave a cheque, and when next day I went with Green to cash it, the bankers said they had received “orders not to pay.” This was a dilemma. I wrote a most indignant letter, and that brute Brown answered ic through a lawyer, saying that the person who had been introduced as Captain Macbeth was none other than John Sirent, who, ten years before, had been turned out of half a dozen clubs for cheating at cards. Whew! What was to be done ? Green said he could not admit the statement at all, but a thousand was of very little consequence, so I took no further notice of Brown, who afterwards demanded an explanation. I gave it him to the effect that Captain Macbeth had been introduced to me,* and I had played with him and lost, and had paid my losses. Since receiving Brown’s letter I had made inquiries and t'qund out that I had been duped, and so the matter rested.

“I want a new ‘workman,’” Green said, “ or, at least, a new companion, who could', bring some players and stand in a bit.” I thought over all the hard-up men I knew, and tumbled across Thompson, who was off to Monte Carlo to try and win back in a couple of weeks the fortune he had run through in a couple . of years. I went down to Charing Cross Station to see him off. He was awfully down on his luck, and I just whispered in his ear: “ If you want it all back, T can make it a certainty for you.” It is hardly credible, but, nevertheless, true, that he repeated and exaggerated my observation all over the place, saying that

I had suggested to him to cheat at cards. The liar ! But this did me a lot of harm. People began to talk, like they had in Brussels.

We had several parties, either at hotels or chambers taken specially for the purpose and Green came, and I introduced him in different names each time. What a clever fellow he was to be sure. Whenever he won a good stake it was always agreed that not a word should bo said about it at the club. I promised and so did Green, who, of course not being a member of any club, was sure to keep his word, though he had a well-known army club printed on his cards as an address. We never won more than a man could afford to pay, or, at least, could pay, whether he could afford it or not. I funked a little one night when half-a-dozen chaps camo to dine, and we sat down to a game of baccarat. I always lost. Green arranged that I should, but the others lost on balance and we had a good night. But tho next day, at tho Round Tabic, two oi throe of the follows were rather cool to me. When I wanted to take a hand at ecarte two of them left the ta/ble. I found out the reason—Brown had oome back from Australia. His uncle had died, and ho had come into a lot of money, and all my guests of the previous evening had been talking over the fire when he came in and joined them, and they told him about their good game last night, and that they had been playing with me. Then he related his experience of when he had lost to me, and had stopped his cheque, and one thing led to another, until they spoke of Green. “ An oldish man, with glasses on, and an enormous nose, won all the coin, said somebody, and Brown pricked up his

ears. “ His name was Macbeth, ho suggested. “No; I have his card here,’ said another. “Colonel Rusher, the Senior Service.” They got a list of the members of the club and searched it. No such name, of course. I went off to Green as soon as I found out what was up. “ Brazen it out,” lie advised, “ and I’ll go off to France for a bit.” How was I to commence—what was I to do; I did not know. A friend from whom I had won money, with whom I had dined, and who had won from me in the club, put the matter a little too straight to me. “My boy,” bo said, “it had better come from me than anyone else; the fact is, the people who lost money to your friend are not satisfied. They think he is a sharper, and, unless you want to be cut all round, you’d better explain.” Of course I was highly indignant. “ I’ve known Rusher for years,” I protested. “That is what they say,” was the answer. The crisis had arrived. I consulted a lawyer, who told mo that, as there was no definite charge, I need make no answer. So I accepted his advice. But the fellow's made it too warm. They held an informal meeting, and asked me to attend with Colonel Rusher and any gentleman who knew him, and there would be an end of the matter. I said of course I would, and I telegraphed to Green to come. But as I found out that Brown was one of tho investigating party who were to meet me, °and, that as, of course, he would recognise Colonel Rusher as Captain Macbeth of old, the game was up. If I had pressed him to pay his cheque on the first occasion, I should never have been in this terrible hole. My absence at tho time appointed was construed into an admission that Brown had been right, and that ruined me, so I sent in my resignation to the Round Table, and am going to live in Paris with Green. Perhaps tho luck will turn.