IV
Original
Literary translation
§ 4.1
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The casino at Bront-les-Eaux is relatively new.
§ 4.2
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It was built by a Parisian company, spurred on by an enthusiastic architect who loved his profession and who, together with contractors hungry for work, made some thirty villas spring up in this previously undeveloped district.
§ 4.3
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These villas were rented to shareholders in the spa company, who were eager to increase the number of visitors taking the waters, and then to foreigners, some of whom had crossed the seas on the strength of a newspaper article signed by a doctor nobody had heard of, but whose name, once in print, had suddenly gained an air of authority.
§ 4.4
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Little by little, golf and tennis enthusiasts gathered around the original nucleus, along with young women who had no intention of remaining unmarried forever.
§ 4.5
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The arrival of a maharaja, unexpected as it was, had set the seal on the resort’s prestige.
§ 4.6
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Under the guise of modern style, the casino had limewashed walls and none of the costly architectural confectionery.
§ 4.7
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When Mr. Planchet entered, he paid no attention whatsoever to the architectural decorations.
§ 4.8
.
He easily secured a two-week admission card and hurried off to play boule.
§ 4.9
.
It seemed to him that every minute of delay was being stolen from the happy and prosperous life he would soon be leading.
§ 4.10
. .
We can now reveal what Mr. Planchet’s system consisted of.
§ 4.11
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The inventor will not hold it against us because, for various reasons that subsequent events will doubtless make clear, he is unlikely to want to keep the system to himself.
§ 4.12
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One waits until ten numbers have come up, recording them in order.
§ 4.13
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Then one places a bet on each of the two numbers that have come up most frequently.
§ 4.14
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One begins by betting one franc, then two francs, then six francs, then a louis.
§ 4.15
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The initial results were quite respectable.
§ 4.16
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By lunchtime, Mr. Planchet had pocketed a profit of 117 francs.
§ 4.17
, !
Those were not yet the millions advertised outside, but the maximum stake at boule is so small!
§ 4.18
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Mr. Planchet considered hiring ten or twelve trustworthy men, all of whom would play according to his system, following his instructions.
§ 4.19
. .
But the management might notice these ten or twelve people playing the same game, and Mr. Planchet and his gang would doubtless be asked to take their operation elsewhere.
§ 4.20
?
What did it matter?
§ 4.21
. …
By then, Mr. Planchet would have substantial funds, and he would go to work in Monte Carlo…
§ 4.22
, .
In any case, ten or twelve trusted men could not be found at a moment’s notice in a little town like Bront.
§ 4.23
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That afternoon, Mr. Planchet would have to content himself with modest profits, as he had done in the morning.
§ 4.24
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Perhaps, since he would be playing longer, he might manage to scrape together a paltry thousand-franc note.
§ 4.25
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In any case, he must not regard this afternoon of waiting as a business session, but merely as a few hours of amusement.
§ 4.26
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The losing turn, which, according to Mr. Planchet’s calculations, could occur only once in twelve hundred gambling sessions, happened on that very day, through one of those malicious and utterly unpredictable whims of Fate.
§ 4.27
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The afternoon, which might have brought in a mere thousand francs, cost him roughly that amount instead, which was to say everything Mr. Planchet possessed.
§ 4.28
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The fifty-franc note, which he might need to settle his hotel bill and had set aside in a small pocket, was deployed like the Guard at Waterloo, and met a similar fate.
§ 4.29
. ; .
Even so, Mr. Planchet still had five francs on him when he left the Casino, which goes to show that he was not the worst gambler on earth.
§ 4.30
: .
On the benches in the square sat a dozen respectable-looking members of the lower middle class, just the sort of trustworthy men mentioned earlier.
§ 4.31
. . , .
Mr. Planchet entered the post office like a man confident in his decisions and wrote a telegram addressed to Mr. Luc Planchet in Montevideo.
§ 4.32
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He simply asked for ten thousand francs by telegraphic money order.
§ 4.33
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The matter was a sure thing now: the losing turn that had just occurred would surely not happen again for another two thousand sessions, and by then Mr. Planchet would have made his fortune.
§ 4.34
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There is nothing more absurd than telegraph rates.
§ 4.35
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It seems clear that the farther away the recipient of a telegram lives, the more the appeal addressed to him indicates an urgent need and must come from someone in financial difficulties, or, to put it simply, flat broke.
§ 4.36
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Yet this is precisely when the clerk at the counter makes outrageous demands, such as asking 220 francs of a gentleman whose entire fortune consists of a five-franc banknote, still in reasonably good condition.
§ 4.37
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The bridge at Bront stands a hundred feet or so above the poorly padded bed of a poor little country tributary of a tributary, which is willing enough to pass through the town because geography requires it, but would just as soon confine its unpretentious course to deserted countryside.
§ 4.38
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Above all, this modest river has no wish for the fame a local newspaper would bring it if, unexpectedly, it received from the top of the bridge a gentleman weary of life, whom it would not even be able to drown in its meager waters, fit at most to staunch the bleeding from wounds inflicted by the stones on its bed.
§ 4.39
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In any case, no event of that kind was to be reported that day by the Réveil de Bront-les-Eaux.
§ 4.40
. .
Mr. Planchet had indeed seated himself on the parapet.
§ 4.41
( ).
He had indeed put between his teeth the barrel of a loaded Browning pistol that he had brought for his journey (and now for the great journey).
§ 4.42
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But, repelled by the coldness of the weapon, a foretaste of the coldness of death, he had thrown his revolver into the river, without considering that this deadly object can, on occasion, help a man stay alive if he trades it for a few dollars.
§ 4.43
. .
Mr. Planchet left the parapet for good and returned to the sidewalk.
§ 4.44
…
The height of the bridge unnerved him, and he would have dared the fall only after muddling his brains a little with a revolver bullet…
§ 4.45
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At the corner of the quay and the main street, a pharmacist displayed a red sign on which the name of a new product was lavishly proclaimed in white lettering: Écrasol.
§ 4.46
.
It promised nervous people who took its pills a full twelve hours of sleep.
§ 4.47
. .
Mr. Planchet thought this was just the thing for him.
§ 4.48
…
He obtained a box of this medicine, which cost only three francs…
§ 4.49
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The weather was fine.
§ 4.50
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He told himself he would sleep soundly in some luxuriously cushioned meadow nearby.
§ 4.51
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Mr. Planchet was so eager to forget the casinos, the intolerable betrayals of probability calculations, the absurd remoteness of Uruguay, and the worry of where his next chop would come from, that he opened the box at once and swallowed half a dozen pills instead of the recommended one.
§ 4.52
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Sleep did not knock him out at once, but he felt “groggy”, like a boxer who has just taken a solid punch to the side of the face.
§ 4.53
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Had he been clear-headed, would he have had the nerve to enter that garage, empty as it happened at that moment?
§ 4.54
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A magnificent six-cylinder car, fitted with a limousine body, stood in the covered garage hall alongside more ordinary cars.
§ 4.55
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Mr. Planchet, who was not particularly choosy, made straight for this imposing car and boldly opened the door…
§ 4.56
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At the back lay a heap of blankets and furs.
§ 4.57
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Mr. Planchet stretched out on the seat, placed a small inflatable pillow beneath his fragile head, covered himself completely with the luxurious fur coats, and surrendered himself, for an indefinite time, to the benefits of Écrasol.