ncs on double zero; Racksole put a hundred on number nineteen and a
thousand on the odd numbers.

Nineteen won. Racksole received four thousand four hundred francs. Nine
times in succession Racksole backed number nineteen and the odd numbers;
nine times the lady backed double zero. Nine times Racksole won and the
lady lost. The other players, perceiving that the affair had resolved
itself into a duel, stood back for the most part and watched those two.
Prince Aribert never stirred from his position behind the great red
hat. The game continued. Racksole lost trifles from time to time, but
ninety-nine hundredths of the luck was with him. As an English spectator
at the table remarked, 'he couldn't do wrong.' When midnight struck the
lady in the red hat was reduced to a thousand francs. Then she fell into
a winning vein for half an hour, but at one o'clock her resources
were exhausted. Of the hundred and sixty thousand francs which she was
reputed to have had early in the evening, Racksole held about ninety
thousand, and the bank had the rest.

It was a calamity for the Juno of the red hat. She jumped up, stamped
her foot, and hurried from the room. At a discreet distance Racksole and
the Prince pursued her.

'It might be well to ascertain her movements,' said Racksole.

Outside, in the glare of the great arc lights, and within sound of the
surf which beats always at the very foot of the Kursaal, the Juno of
the red hat summoned a fiacre and drove rapidly away. Racksole and
the Prince took an open carriage and started in pursuit. They had not,
however, travelled more than half a mile when Prince Aribert stopped the
carriage, and, bidding Racksole get out, paid the driver and dismissed
him.

'I feel sure I know where she is going,' he explained, 'and it will be
better for us to follow on foot.'

'You mean she is making for the scene of last night's affair?' said
Racksole.

'Exactly. We shall--what you call, kill two birds with one stone.'

Prince Aribert's guess was correct. The lady's carriage stopped in
front of the house where Nella Racksole and Miss Spencer had had their
interview on the previous evening, and the lady vanished into the
building just as the two men appeared at the end of the street. Instead
of proceeding along that street, the Prince led Racksole to the lane
which gave on to the backs of the houses, and he counted the houses as
they went up the lane. In a few minutes they had burglariously climbe