LITERATURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7295, 15 October 1891, Page 1

LITERATURE.

HOW VON RACHNITZ GAVE _VP_ PLAY. (Truth.) (Conoluded.) By this time Von Riichnitz had amassed a large sum of money— larger, indeed, than any of his associates imagined. Ho and his wife were living very smartly in a small way, and were by degrees making good their position in the very best society. He waa very popular with the leading members of the Club, amongst whom were the cream of the male Parisian aristocracy. " George," said the Baroness one day, " I wish you would give up play." "I wish I could, Mamie. I would give it up to-morrow if I saw my way to do so." " I can't see what is to prevent you, if you wißh. It's simply tempting Providence to trust to your luck any longer." " You are perfectly right in what you Bay, Mamie, but you must remember that the majority of the members of the Baccarat Club don't look on gaming as a business, and if it was for a moment imagined that I played only for the money I make, we should lose ground terribly in society." " I don't see why." "Well, Mamie, I've told you often enough that a man who has played successfully is always expected to go on giving hia fellow-members an opportunity for revenge. I should go down tremendously in their estimation if I suddenly stopped playing without assigning any reason. You don't know how suspicious people become of a man who gives up play before play gives up him. I don't Bee how I'm to abandon it altogether unless we make np our minds to leave Paris and settle elsewhere." " Oh, George, that's out of the question, just when we've got into society and all that. By the by, we're invited to the Due de Pince-nez." "One of the very people, my dear Mamie, who would never invite ub again if I were to give up play suddenly and without good excuse." " Oh, well, then, I suppose it can't be helped," said Mamie, resigning herself, aa she had often done before, to what seemed to be the inevitable. It waa just about this timo that Raoul 'Fleischer became a member of the Club. He waa a rude, overbearing vulgar creature, as has before been said, egotistical and pushing to a degree, always boasting about hia superiority at games of skill, and exasperating!? confident of his luck at games of ohance. More than once it had been suggested to Yon Riichnitz that he should challenge this very objectionable person to a great bout at e*oarte, in which, if his luck — which was by this time proverbial in the Clubheld good, trie starch might be taken out of Mr Raoul Fleischer. "Well Baron," said the latter, one night, addressing Von Riichnitz with a vulgar assumption of familiarity, " lucky, aa usual, I suppose ?" " I don't know so much about lnck, M. Fleischer ; I'm prepared to back my skill even against you. I'll play you a few games of ecarto if you wish, though perhaps that's hardly your game, judging from the way you lost the big pool laat night." "Ecarte not my game!" hissed Fleischer, indignantly, " I, truly, lost the pool last night, but the cards were against me— that waa why: I made no mistake. I will, mein Herr, play you, when you will, for what you will, a hundred gameß of 6oarte, and we will see who is the better man, I or you." " Take him, Baron !" chorussed several voices, for they had been talking loud, and a email knot of men had colleoted. "Very well," said Von Riiohnitz, "aa you will. To-morrow I will play you one hundred games of ccarW for 1000 franoa apiece." The following night the Clnb was crowded. News of the match had got wind, and many men dropped in just to enjoy the discomfiture of the "butcher." It is needless to enter into partioulara of the play. Suffice it to say that Von Biiohnitz lost, lost, lost, and Fleischer won, won, won. And what waa most extraordinary about it, he was successful, in apite of the fact that his play was contrary to all the canons of the game. He played "on authority " when he hardly seemed to have a decent card in his hand, and yet won. And he gave cards when he held a good playing hand, and always succeeded in bettering it. Von Eilchnitz's face soon became a study. It was evident that he was fairly puzzled. Absolutely irrationally as Fleisoher played, the cards were always againßt the Baron. To those onlookers who could see Fleischer's "hand," it was very soon evident that he must have a peculiar knowledge of the carda still left in the pack. For some few games, however, this did not seem to occur to Von Riiohnitz. The tenth game was being played, and all the completed ones stood to the credit of his opponent. Fleischer waa "four up," and " marked" the king for the third time in succession, thus making the tenth game hia also. At this moment Von Riichnitz rose in hia place and said, in a voice of assumed calmness .— " These cards are marked. I demand an investigation." Then, taking up tho pack which lay at his side, he threw them, not ungently, into hiß opponent's face, and cried :— "Take that, for the scoundrelly, swindling, half-bred Dutchman that you are !" In a moment there waa a forward dash aoross the card-table, and Von Riichnitz, drawing back, had the satisfaction of seeing the wretched Fleischer crash through it to the ground. To make a long Btory short, an investigation was held on the spot. Von Riichnitz proved hiß oharge to be well-founded, and the wretched cosmopolite waaignominiously expelled, half-dead with terror, from the Club. Indeed, had it not been for the chivalrous interposition of his opponent, it is doubtful whether he would have left the place alive j and, if he had, it ia certain he would promptly have been handed over to the police. But Von Riiohnitz, in the most generous way, accorded him his protection from the infuriated members, only warning him, in their presence, that if he was seen in Paris again he would be promptly prosecuted for the swindler he was. All thiß time theyoung Baron Bhowed the most admirable coolneaß. After Fleiachoi 'a expulsion, he returned into the card-room, and, after a short pause, asked to be allowed to, say a word publicly. ' " Gentleman," he said, " I am, about to act upon an impulse. Whether lam wise in doing so remains to be proved, but, so irresistibly do I feol impelled towards the course lam about to take, that I feel I dare not delay announcing my deoision. I need not tell you, gentlemen, that this episode has been to me a most terrible shook. Never before in my life have I scon cheating at cardß, and never again— so help me, God!— will I submit to that experience. From thiß moment, and in your presence, I swear moat solemnly that neither in this Club, nor elsewhere will I touch a card for the remainder of my life." Thore were murmurs of surprise, mingled with slight applause, and it was admitted on all sides that thn Baron had shown an amount of generosity and courage which were nothing short of admirable # * * * * Von Riiohnitz ia still a member of tho Baccarat Club, but he pluys no more. Ho,

with hia wife, moves in the very best Parisian society, and has the reputation of great cleverness and extraordinary courage. But no one has ever yet given him credit for having been clever and courageous enough to have imported into the Baccarat Club the unfortunate Fleischer, who for a handsome consideration, had agreed to undergo all the contumely and risks attending the discovery of a cheat, which were necessary to cover the Baron's retreat from a systematic swindling of his fellowmembers, probably unparalleled in the history of cards.