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Page 36
"Some way--any way, you must get them back for a time. Let me see
some of the blanks."
Halsey shut the door. From a secret drawer of his desk he drew a
package of beautifully engraved paper.
Constance looked at it a moment. Then with a fountain pen, across
the front of each, she made a few marks. Halsey looked on eagerly.
As she handed them back to him, not a sign showed on any part of
them.
"You must tell them that there is something wrong with the others,
that you will give them other certificates of your own about which
there is no question. Tell them anything to get them back. Here--
take this other fountain pen, sign the new certificates with that,
in their presence so that they will suspect nothing. To-night I
shall expect you to play up to the limit, to play into Mrs. Noble's
hand and assume her losses, too. I shall meet you there at nine."'
Constance had laid her plans quickly. That night she waited in her
own apartment until she heard Halsey enter across the hall. She had
determined to give him plenty of time to obtain the old forged
certificates and substitute for them the new forgeries.
Perhaps half an hour later she heard Mrs. Noble enter. As Constance
followed her in, the effusive greeting of Bella LeMar showed that as
yet she suspected nothing. A quick glance at Halsey brought an
answering nod and an unconscious motion toward his pocket where he
had stuffed the old certificates carelessly.
A moment later they had plunged into the game. The play that night
was spirited. Soon the limit was the roof.
From the start things seemed to run against Halsey and Mrs. Noble
even worse than before. At the same time fortune seemed to favor
Constance. Again and again she won, until even Watson seemed to
think there was something uncanny about it.
"Beginner's luck," remarked Bella with a forced laugh.
Still Constance won, not much, but steadily, though not enough to
offset the larger winnings of Watson.
Fast and furious became the play and as steadily did it go against
Halsey. Mrs. Noble retired, scarcely repressing the tears. Constance
dropped out. Only Halsey and Watson remained, fighting as if it were
a duel to the death.
"Please stop, Halsey," pleaded Mrs. Noble. "What is the use of
tempting fortune?"
An insane half light seemed to glow in his eyes as, with a quick
glance at Constance and a covert nod of approval from her, he forced
a smile and playfully laid his finger on Mrs. Noble's lips.
"Double or quits, Watson," he cried. "Return the new certificates or
take others for twice the amount. Are you game?"
"I'm on," agreed Watson coolly.
Halsey laid down his hand in triumph. There were four kings.
"I win," ground out Watson viciously, as he tossed down four aces.
Constance was on her feet in a moment.
"You are a lot of cheats and swindlers," she cried, seizing the
cards before any one could interfere.
Deftly she laid out the four aces beside the four deuces, the four
kings beside the four queens. It was done so quickly that even
Halsey, in his amazement, could find nothing to say. Mrs. Noble
paled and was speechless. As for Bella and Watson, nothing could
have aroused them more than the open charge that they were using
false devices.
Yet never for a moment did Watson lose his iron cynicism.
"Prove it," he demanded. "As for Mr. Halsey, he may pay or I'll show
the stock I already hold to the proper people."
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