The Sack of Monte Carlo 1

The Sack of Monte Carlo 1

The Sack of Monte Carlo

An Adventure of To-day

 

Author: Walter Frith

 

CHAPTER I

Some Slight Explanation—Objects of the

Expedition—Love the Promoter—Lucy Thatcher—Her

Portrait by Lamplight 1

 

CHAPTER II

“The French Horn”—Mabel Harker: My Unfortunate

Engagement to Her—Mr. Crage and Wharton Park 7

 

CHAPTER III

I Continue to Keep Out of Mabel Harker’s Way and

Go to Goring—Return to “The French

Horn”—Wanderings with Lucy—Mr. Crage Rehearses

His Own Funeral 17

 

CHAPTER IV

I am Free of Mabel Harker—Return to “The French

Horn”—Disastrous Interference of Harold Forsyth

in My Affairs 25

 

CHAPTER V

Anglesey Lodge—My Interview with Lucy in

Kensington Gardens—Not so Satisfactory as I

could Desire 29

 

CHAPTER VI

Early Difficulties—I Fail to Persuade the

Honorable Edgar Fanshawe, the Reverend Percy

Blyth, and Mr. Parker White, M.P., to Join our

Monte Carlo Party 37

 

CHAPTER VII

I Interview Mr. Brentin—His Sympathy and

Interest—Sir Anthony Hipkins and the Yacht

_Amaranth_—We Determine to Look Over It 47

 

CHAPTER VIII

We Go to Ryde—The _Amaranth_—Accidental Meeting

with Arthur Masters and His Lady Friend—I Enroll

Him Among Us, Provisionally—We Decide to

Purchase the Yacht 60

 

CHAPTER IX

My Sister’s Suspicions—Heroes of _The Argo_—My

Sister Determines to Come with Us as Chaperon to

Miss Rybot 70

 

CHAPTER X

Mr. Brentin’s Indiscretion—Lucy and I Make It

Up—Bailey Thompson Appears in Church—On

Christmas Day we Hold a Council of War 77

 

CHAPTER XI

Mr. Bailey Thompson Gives us His Ingenious

Advice—We are Fools enough to Trust

Him—Misplaced Confidence 87

 

CHAPTER XII

Monte Carlo—Mr. Van Ginkel’s Yacht _Saratoga_—We

Prospect—Fortunate Discovery of the Point of

Attack—First Visit to the Rooms 95

 

CHAPTER XIII

Mrs. Wingham and Teddy Parsons—He Foolishly

Confides in Her—I Make a Similar Mistake 103

 

CHAPTER XIV

Arrival of the _Amaranth_—All Well on Board—Their

First Experience of the Rooms 111

 

CHAPTER XV

Influence of Climate on Adventure—Unexpected

Arrival of Lucy—Her Revelations—Danger Ahead 118

 

CHAPTER XVI

Council of War—Captain Evans’s Decision—I Go to

the Rooms and Confide in My Sister 127

 

CHAPTER XVII

Enter Mr. Bailey Thompson—Van Ginkel Stands by

Us—We Show Thompson Round and Explain

Details—Teddy Parsons’s Alarm 136

 

CHAPTER XVIII

Exit Mr. Bailey Thompson 146

 

CHAPTER XIX

The Great Night—Dinner at the “Hôtel de Paris”—A

Last Look Round—The Sack and Its

Incidents—Flight 151

 

CHAPTER XX

We Discover Teddy Parsons is Left Behind—I Make Up

My Mind—To the Rescue!—Unmanly Conduct of the

Others—I Go Alone—Disguise—The Garde Champêtre 171

 

CHAPTER XXI

In My Disguise I am Mistaken for Lord B.—A Club

Acquaintance—Teddy at the Law Courts—Mrs.

Wingham—The Defence and The Acquittal—We Bolt 185

 

CHAPTER XXII

Our Flight to Venice—Thence to Athens—We all Meet

on the Acropolis—Reappearance of Mr. Bailey

Thompson!—Again we Manage to Put Him Off the

Scent 202

 

CHAPTER XXIII

We Arrive Safe in London and Go to Medworth

Square—Back at “The French Horn”—News at Last of

the _Amaranth_—I Interview Mr. Crage and Find

Him Ill 219

 

CHAPTER XXIV

Arrival of Brentin—My Wedding-day—We Go to

Wharton—Bailey Thompson and Cochefort Follow

Us—We Finally Defeat Them Both 230

 

CONCLUSION 243

 

 

 

 

THE SACK OF MONTE CARLO

“_I don’t say that it is possible; I only affirm it to be true._”

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER I

 

SOME SLIGHT EXPLANATION—OBJECTS OF THE EXPEDITION—LOVE THE

PROMOTER—LUCY THATCHER—HER PORTRAIT BY LAMPLIGHT

 

 

THE idea occurred to me, quite unexpectedly and unsought for, early one

morning in bed; and, as ideas of such magnitude are valuable and scarce

(at any rate, with me), it was not long before I determined to try and

realize it.

 

The expedition was so successful, and we got, on the whole, so clear and

clean away with the swag, or, as Mr. Julius C. Brentin, our esteemed

American _collaborateur_, called it, “the boodle,” that, for my part,

there I should have been perfectly content to let the affair rest; but,

the fact is, so many of my friends have taken upon themselves to doubt

whether we really did it at all, and the Monte Carlo authorities from

the very first so cunningly managed to suppress all details (with their

subsidized press), that I feel it due to us all to try and write the

adventure out; since I know very well how, with most, seeing in print is

believing.

 

Briefly, then, my idea was to sack or raid the gambling-tables at Monte

Carlo, that highly notorious _cloaca maxima_ for all the scum of Europe,

which there gutters and gushes forth into the sapphire and tideless

Mediterranean. I had worked details out for myself, and believed that,

what with the money on the tables and the reserve in the vaults, there

could not be much short of £200,000 on the Casino premises, a sum as

much worth making a dash for, it seemed to me, as Spanish plate-ships to

Drake or Raleigh. Nor did it seem likely we should have to do much

fighting to secure it; for all the authorities I consulted assured me

the place was by no means a Gibraltar, and, in fact, that half a dozen

resolute gentlemen with revolvers and a swift steam-yacht waiting in the

harbor would be more than enough to do the trick and clean the place

out; which was pretty much what we found.

 

As for the morality of the affair, I confess _that_ never in the least

troubled me—never once. One puts morality on one side when dealing with

a gaming-establishment, and to raid the place seemed to me just as

reasonable and fair as to go there with a system, besides being likely

to be a good deal more profitable. And since the objects to which we

destined the money were in the main charitable, I soon came to regard the expedition strictly _in pios usus_ (as lawyers say), and hope and believe the public will regard it in that light too.