When the Winner Lost/Chapter 7

N the course of the next week I visited the Carlton Chess Club three times, and each time I played in the company of Charles Armand Latisse. He sought me out and seemed to find in my extravagance a kindred spirit much to his liking. After two of the sessions we went to his home to prolong the night of dissipation by games of three-cushion billiards. I found that he was easily my master at this branch of sport, but we always placed a good-sized bet on the result, nevertheless. Since he was generous with odds, I won nearly as many games as I lost.

I found that he kept house with his mother and sister in a rambling mansion on Woodlawn Avenue, of which the greater portion was kept closed permanently. A crew of servants cared for the mother, who was blind and an invalid as the result of a motoring accident several years previously. The daughter I did not meet until the second occasion.

Latisse himself was not a man I would have sought for an intimate. He seemed always cold, in spite of the snapping eyelids and the pretenses he made at friendship. I attributed this to his incessant gambling, which in time will chill the decent qualities of any one. In spite of the open-handed manner in which I accepted his propositions on all bets, he was the sort of opponent with whom one does not care to make a run of three while he is not watching. Whenever he left the room I put up my cue until his return.

On the second night he was leading me eleven to nine in a game I had determined would be the last. I was sleepy and ready to retire. A knock sounded on the door of the billiard room, and he excused himself. I heard a servant's voice delivering some message. I hung up my cue, determining mentally to call the game lost and pay my score when he returned. As my left hand was black with the dust it had scuffed from the green cloth, I rolled up my sleeves and started to wash at the lavatory in the alcove. Due doubtless to the running water, I heard no one enter.

"Mr. Trask?" It was a girl's voice, hesitating, yet vibrant with resolve.

"Eh?" I started back, surprised beyond measure, for though Latisse had mentioned his sister I had not dreamed of seeing her up in the billiard room at five in the morning.

As I looked again I dropped the towel hastily and rolled down my sleeves. Though dressed in one of those middy khaki-skirt-and-boots effects so unbecoming to women generally, Miss Latisse commanded my instant attention. She was an inch or so taller than her brother, and of a straight slimness wholly refreshing after his dissipated slouch. At the second I turned I drew my breath with a gasp, thinking, "She is the most beautiful woman I have seen!" In the succeeding seconds I had to revise this estimate somewhat. Her mouth might be lovely when she smiled; at the moment it held too much of strength and sternness. Her eyes were too cold, also, not with the calculating chill of her brother's eyes, but with extreme reserve. Even the service cap which concealed her hair seemed to partake of the general severity.

"I must ask you to pardon my intrusion, Mr. Trask," she went on hastily, not giving me time for a word, "and also for my odd costume. My name is Elise Latisse, Charlie's sister."

I bowed with what dignity and grace I could summon, without collar, necktie, and coat. "At your service, I am sure."

She advanced to the edge of the billiard table and clasped one of the balls nervously.

"I-I have taken the trouble to look you up." she said, "and so we will dispense with all formalities. In order to speak to you I have forged a message to my brother which will keep him away for several minutes."

I bowed gravely again, not knowing what she could be driving at.

"Do you think the kind of life you and my brother are living is a credit to you?" she burst out. "He is steadily ruining himself." she continued in that quiet calmness of tone that with some women means the deepest emotion, "and it is the influence of men like you that is dragging him down."

"I'm afraid I cannot accept that responsibility," I countered. "I have known your brother only two weeks, and in that time I have not invited him or persuaded him to do anything at all." Though I caught myself watching the finely molded curves of her chin and throat with a strange fascination, I could not afford, in the light of my responsibility, the guardianship of any chap like Charles Armand Latisse.

"Yes, but where have you been together?" she flared, looking me straight in the eyes. "Downtown in some gambling resort, or up here, wagering money at billiards. Oh, you are not the first! No matter what I do to prevent it, he manages to pick up acquaintances, one after another, with whom to do this sort of thing."

I shrugged my shoulders. Inclination suggested strongly that I enlist in whatever scheme she had in mind, but prudence forbade. It well might run counter to the plans of my employers.

"Whatever influence I have with Charles I should probably lose if I tried to help him in any way," I answered. "Men don't take kindly to the interference of outsiders."

I could see that she had come to despise me as a liar as well as a scoundrel who was leading her brother astray, and it hurt almost intolerably, but I was gripping the ends of my resolve not to reveal too much, so said no more.

"Well," she hesitated, "in watching you I thought that perhaps you might help me if you would.You seemed a little—perhaps a trifle above most of Charles' other associates." She turned with a little gesture of despair.

It was not within the boundaries of human nature to allow her to go in this way. For two full years I had not spoken as many words to any woman, and Elise Latisse, in spite of her odd and imperative mannerisms, somehow made me hungry for her approval. Though I did not recognize it at the time, this simply was a manifestation of the attraction any good and beautiful woman possesses for men. Though at her worst probably in the billiard room at that unearthly hour in the morning, I could not endure her contempt.

"Wait!" I said. I was sparring for time, and pretending to hesitate in order to gain a chance to think. "Perhaps I might be able to do something of the kind you desire."

I saw her eyes light up for the first time, and my senses reeled. I mentally "raised back" on my initial estimate of the girl. When she smiled with something of expectancy I knew that Selwyn Trask could not rest until he deserved that smile for himself. She was more than alluring! She was a goddess!

"Yes?" she hinted, and I came to myself to realize that I had presumed.

"Pardon, I was just thinking." I have no excuses to offer for myself, except those that any young fool might summon. In one and one-half minutes I had fallen head over heels in love with a girl I had not seen before, and whose brother I despised!

There seemed to be but one thing to do, and I did it. Stepping quickly to her side, I said rapidly, for I knew my revelation was perhaps the worst thing I could have thought of under the circumstances: "I am not a New Zealander. My name is not Selwyn Trask. I have been a war aviator, but now I am engaged in more important business. Your brother knows nothing of it, and if you tell him what I have told you I will not be able to be of the slightest assistance. If you can keep this to yourself, I will probably be able to—"

"Why, I didn't know you two had met!" I recognized Charles' suspicious, rasping voice behind us, and realized for the first time that I was holding both of Elise's hands.

"Oh, neither did I until a moment ago," I replied, searching my brain for an excuse. "As it happens, we have met before, under rather unusual circumstances. I-I had the pleasure the other day of making Miss Latisse's engine run when it seemed a bit obstinate." I stepped back. "As you left without saying when you would be back, I was just going, when I met Miss Latisse in the hall."

"Since when have you been running an ambulance car?" demanded Charles, turning on the girl.

"I was out Tuesday with Marion Ferris," Elise explained easily. She was a thoroughbred, and I breathed easier.

"Well, I want to know who brought that note?" her brother continued, abandoning his first attack but coming more irritably to the second.

"I don't know. He was short and heavy-set, and seemed to be in a hurry."

Charles growled. "Well, I didn't find any one, and they're not likely to get me out at five in the morning." He checked himself. "You'd better hike for bed!" he advised. "It's rather late for young ladies to be receiving friends."

I could have knocked him down for that, but Elise was fully capable of handling the situation. "I am dressed for the day, not going to bed, like you night owls!" she retorted, flinging up her chin. "Good-morning, Mr. Trask! Come and see me some day soon!" And she had left.

I explained to him that I was willing to call off the last game and pay my bet. This seemed to suit him, so in ten minutes I was ready to be off for my hotel.

"Just a minute, Trask," he said, seeming to get over his grouch for the moment. "I have a live lead which you can follow if you desire. I have seen something of the way you enjoy gambling, and I know that the games down at the Carlton are far too tame for you."

"Yes," I answered, affecting a yawn, although my senses were tingling with eagerness. "Five hundred or a thousand dollars seems like such a petty sum that I can't do my best. I find myself playing carelessly—and, of course, losing constantly."

He nodded, the beady, avaricious look deep in his black eyes. "It's that way, of course," he acquiesced. "As for me," and he dropped his glance in affected modesty, "that sum of money is really important; I can't do what I'm going to propose for you."

"A really live game somewhere?"

"Yes!" He came closer. "I know a place where many of the richest men in the Middle West go to gamble," he whispered. "They play cards, faro, roulette, and all games there for just what you wish. In many of the pastimes the sky is the limit!"

"Really now!" I exclaimed, in a delighted tone. I felt the same crook coming in the middle finger of my right hand that used to exhibit itself when a Boche plane came scudding nearer and nearer to the range of my machine gun. This probably was what I was after! "What is the name of the club?"

Latisse shook his head. "That I cannot tell you " he rejoined still in a whisper. "All is secret on the pain of death. The men who go would not have it known that they gamble. Therefore an elaborate plan is arranged by which every one abides. If you wish to go you must remember that if you exhibit curiosity in the wrong place, or blab a single word of what you have heard or seen, your life is forfeit!"

"A still tongue is one of my greatest assets," I said with a hint of sarcasm. I was thinking of how I had thrown my life into the keeping of this scoundrel's sister merely for a smile.

"It had better be!" he said emphatically. "Do you want to go?"

"Naturally!" I retorted. "You couldn't keep me away now with a loaded gun!"

He smiled in the grim, avaricious fashion I had noted before.

"Well, I will tell you how. To-morrow evening you will walk to the corner of Jackson Boulevard and Michigan Avenue at precisely ten minutes of eight. A taxi will swing up to the curb at the southeast corner on the exact second. Without asking any questions you will board it and stay quiet inside until further orders are given to you."

"Sounds spooky enough to be interesting!" I commented.

"It has to be. You will never know where you were taken, and I advise you to be content with the Carlton if you have any idea you would like to find out! If you have your car followed you never will see the light of day again. Or if you tell any one even indirectly about the place the vengeance of the organization will reach you. Every member is watched closely. This is necessary in order that the whole place should not be taken in some time by the police, like an ordinary joint."

I did my best to convince Latisse that I was thrilled over the prospect of gambling in this manner. Actually I was a trifle excited, though disappointed. It looked as though I had been hired merely to spy upon a company of profligates similar to that famous one which supports the Prince of Monaco in such truly regal fashion. I did not see why such extreme measures were necessary in order to suppress it. If I were to risk my life merely to keep some wealthy old idler from throwing his money to the winds I could not enthuse greatly over the work. Any ham detective would be glad of the assignment at fifty dollars a week. Since I had accepted my salary for doing nothing, however, I was morally bound to go on. I assured Latisse that the next evening would find me trysting with the taxi at Jackson and Michigan, and left, declining the offer of his car for the trip home. After nights like I had been spending I simply had to pump oxygen into my lungs; this I accomplished usually by walking home if the distance was not over three miles.

I just had turned the corner, swinging on at a fast pace, when back in the shadow I heard the light steps of some one running in pursuit. "Mr. Trask!" called a light voice. It was Elise!

I stopped and met her where a post shielded us from the avenue lamps. "What can take you out now?" I asked, delighted to see her, yet wondering.

She waited a second to regain her breath and then looked up at me with unmistakable seriousness. "I hope you will not think me an absolute idiot," she pleaded, "but after what you said I could not help thinking and thinking. I just had to come after you. Charlie hasn't done anything—anything bad, has he?"

"Charlie?" I echoed. "No, Miss Latisse, not so far as I know. Why?"

"Well," she hesitated, "I didn't know but that—— Oh, I really can't say what I thought. Charlie has been so strange at times lately that I have been afraid . When you said that you were on business more important than war I—

"So far as I know now, Miss Latisse," I assured her, "your brother has little or nothing to do with it."

"Really?" She smiled in relief. "Oh, I'm so glad!" For a second she looked at me. "You may not think this is anything but a coincidence, Mr. Trask, but I must say it, since you have been so kind. I—I want to warn you to be careful."

I waited, astonished thoroughly at the turn of her conversation, but sure that she would elaborate.

"It maybe isn't much of anything," she went on with a nervous laugh, "but I'm illogical enough to be afraid of coincidence."

"Enough coincidence makes logic."

"Well," and her eyes narrowed, "the last man whom Charlie had home here to play billiards with went off somewhere and never showed up again. The papers said that foul play was suspected, but nothing ever was heard of him."

"Whew! Do you really imagine there was any connection between the games with your brother and —?"

She started. "They all disappeared after Charlie had ceased to see them!" she said with a hint of defiance in her tone. "I just wished to warn you, Mr. Trask. Though I am afraid for my brother in many ways I know that he had nothing to do with the murder or abduction. I thought possibly that—Oh, no matter!" She turned, thoroughly angry.

"Wait!" I pleaded; but she was walking quickly back toward her home.