He asserted frankly that he was of French extraction, but only hinted
that he was of noble blood. He had been a hatter, but carefully ignored
the fact; and, having run the blockade with profitable cargoes fourteen
times, had settled down to be a respectable trader between Havre and
Nassau. Mr. Plade shared much of the sentiment and some of the money of
this illustrious personage.
There were rumors abroad that Plade himself had great, but embarrassed,
fortunes.
He was one of the hundred thousand chevaliers who hail the advent of war
as something which will hide their nothingness.
"I knew it," said Auburn Risque, at length, pinching the ball between
his hard palms as if it were the creature of his will. "My system is
good; yours do not validate themselves. You are novices at gambling; I
am an old blackleg." It was as he had said; the method of betting which
he proposed had seemed to be successful. He staked upon colors; never
upon numbers; and alternated from white to black after a fixed,
undeviating routine.
Less by experiment than by faith, the others gave up their own theories
to adopt his own. They resolved to collect every available sou, and,
confiding it to the keeping of Mr. Risque, send him to Germany, that he
might beggar the bankers, and so restore the Southern Colony to its
wonted prosperity.
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