Dr. Mabuse, master of mystery a novel
know were sitting there. The visitors laid aside hats and coats and
went through into the restaurant.
Yes, there things looked different. On entry, the place recalled the
promenade of a well-known Théâtre de Variétés in Paris. Through little
peep-holes or from the boxes one could see a smooth surface gleaming
with light. This was the gaming-table, and it was of immense size. In
the middle there was a circular opening in which was placed a large
revolving chair. It was the seat for the croupier. Around the table the
places for the players were arranged like boxes. Every box--there were
some single ones, some for two and some for four persons--lay shut off
from the rest and in darkness, and all were furnished with comfortable
seats. People could be entirely separated from each other by a curtain,
and a grating, like those of the Parisian theatres, could be drawn at
will. The players might gamble there as securely as if masked, and,
without being recognized or even seen, could indulge their passion for
the tables.
Two miniature rails led from each seat to the croupier, and upon these
stood a little truck. This was to carry the stakes down and later bring
the winnings back. The sum was made known by sliding numbers displayed
on a board. The pressure of a button sent each vehicle to its destined
spot.
On the dome above the table, in the circle formed by the boxes, were
the _petits chevaux_ in varied colours. The little brass horses had
been carved by a Cubist, and painted in their various colours with
highly glazed enamel. They were set in motion by a crank turned by
the croupier. In the middle, beneath the horses, there hung a little
searchlight which, lighted from below, reflected light upon the dome,
and in this light they ran with the dome as a background. This was
painted in the colours of the spectrum arranged alternately, so that
there was always a dark horse against a light colour and a light one
against a dark colour, followed by their shadows. This gave the effect
of promiscuity which was intensified the faster they ran. The goal was
formed by a thin strip of tiny electric lights let into the dome, and
every box had an arrangement of mirrors by which its occupants could
clearly recognize the winner.
Wenk and his companions took their places in a box for four, which
seemed to have been reserved for them. Cara and Karstens sat in front,
the two other men behind.
When the boxes were all filled, the croupier gathered his elegant
evening dress about him, and slowly began to revolve in his seat, as if
on a mechanical rotating disk, while he delivered the following oration:
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is the ‘Go-ahead’ Institute. The ‘Go-ahead’
has in itself the roots of vigour and success. We live in times of
change, and our undertaking is designed to suit all comers. Here you
can play alone, or as a pair, or in company. You can play alone,
because you can have a box for one person only, like the charming
lady of whom I can see no more than the red heron’s feathers in her
coiffure. If you think that for good luck two heads are better than
one, you can seclude yourself from your fellows like yonder elegant
cavalier and his lady; and if you choose to play in company you are
equally invisible from my point of view. In the dome, ladies and
gentlemen, you will find our game, the game of the house, I may venture
to call it, although every other game is equally at your service. There
you see the _petits chevaux_ of the ‘Go-ahead’ Institute. One of the
first artists of our day, whose work you are constantly encountering in
exhibitions and periodicals, has designed them for the ‘Go-ahead,’ and
placed them here, and we have united art with technique, the strongest
product of the age. The reflecting apparatus allows everyone from any
place whatsoever to see at once and quite distinctly whether his horse
is in at the finish. Allow me to demonstrate to you, by a mere turn of
the handle, the very artistic and effective play and counterplay which
is developing in the dome. There was once a man who had no shadow, but
that cannot be said of our _petits chevaux_. Notice, I beseech you, the
extremely artistic effect produced when substance and shadow thus unite
in a piece of work which in its resourcefulness and originality does
the greatest credit to the artist of our house....”
He turned the crank, and horses and shadows chased each other with
kaleidoscopic effect. It formed a pretty and a fanciful picture. Slowly
the horses came to a standstill.
“I had staked on that one,” exclaimed a woman’s voice as the
cream-coloured bay stopped beneath the goal, and in its head the eyes
gleamed forth like stars. They were formed of small electric lamps.
The croupier said: “I will not detain you much longer from trying your
luck, dear madam. I have only now to introduce to you the epoch-making
novelty of the ‘Go-ahead’ Institute. What would you do, ladies and
gentlemen” (here he raised his voice), “if the police were suddenly to
intrude upon you and rob you of your money and your freedom on account
of your forbidden game? You need have no anxiety on that score. We have
hit upon an arrangement which might be called a _garde-police_. The
‘Go-ahead’ Institute may await the police quite calmly. They may be
surrounded and inundated by the police. With a pressure of my little
finger I can turn the whole police force of the city away from you and
let them go ahead elsewhere. Look here!”
He raised his hand, then lowered it with affected impressiveness,
pressing his forefinger down upon the black knob near him. A moment
later the surface of the table was set in motion, and it began to sink.
It moved rapidly and noiselessly, and the speaker sank down with it.
The boxes remained stationary, but from the dome the little horses and
the coloured circles descended--came past the boxes; the dome followed,
and a few minutes later a quartette of nude twelve-year-old children
were to be seen dancing, upon a new stage, to the strains of fiddles
and harps, which began to resound from some invisible quarter. A body
of men, dressed in the uniform of the city police, trooped into the
boxes, exclaiming, “We were told they were gambling here! Where are the
gamblers?”
Everybody in the boxes roared with laughter. The girls continued
dancing, and the uniformed police threw off their disguise and appeared
in evening dress, laughing. The floor began to move again, the girls
still dancing, one of them making a gesture to a gentleman sitting
alone, who sprang towards her, but failed to reach his vanishing
charmer. The floor once more became the ceiling, the _petits chevaux_
reappeared, and in the centre of the gaming-table sat the croupier once
again.
“You see, ladies and gentlemen, we do give the police something for
their pains--the nude girls! And if the case were really serious, they
would soon have a scrap of clothing on. I have to announce that there
is a change of programme every week....” He continued for some time
further in this way.
“This is only an ordinary cinema,” said Wenk, turning to Karstens, and
whispering, “the most ordinary kind of cinema. If the police were to
come, they would discover the whole trick in ten minutes.”
Karstens merely shrugged his shoulders.
Wenk wondered what the aim of such an establishment could be, for it
was bound to be discovered and closed within a week’s time, and the
outlay must have been considerable.
Hull was much struck, having nothing with which to compare what he saw
and heard there.
“Ravishing! enchanting!” said Cara from time to time. “We live in
ingenious times, don’t we? We must come here often, mustn’t we, Eddie?
Which are you going to stake on? I am choosing the black Arab. Black
for me, please Eddie, because you are so fair!”
Karstens cast an amused glance at Wenk. A supper of the most varied and
recherché dainties was provided. Things which seemed to have vanished
in the depreciation of the German currency were seen--_pâté de foie
gras_, fresh truffles, caviare, fieldfares.... In front of a pile of
truffles and _foie gras_, inhaling its pleasant odour, Karstens said
suddenly:
“Our mark to-day stands at seven in Switzerland, but it is seven
centimes, and here things which we have forgotten we ever ordered are
provided for us.”
“Here a mark is worth less than seven centimes,” said Wenk, downcast
and depressed. Whither was it all tending? His heart yearned for help
in his enterprise, and he had no appetite for dainties.
Cara trilled a popular ditty, and Hull, in spite of the influence which
she exercised over him, and his enjoyment of unwonted dainties, began
secretly to be somewhat ashamed. He resolved to send her a parting
present on the morrow, and it should be the parure of Australian opals
she so ardently desired, which a Russian princess, anxious to get on
the stage by Cara’s help, was willing to sell. “This should end it
all,” said Hull to himself. He was disenchanted, and yet at the same
time melancholy. What would become of her? For himself, he almost
thought he would prefer the cloister to....
Just then he savoured a delicious mouthful of truffle, and as he
smacked his lips over it, Hull thought, “Well, there’s something to be
said for this sort of thing, after all. I should not get any more aspic
... and I’ve not broken with her yet, anyhow!...”
Suddenly Wenk got up to go.
“Where are you off to?” cried Cara, excited in a moment.
Karstens turned to her at this instant, separating her from Wenk,
who left the hall undisturbed. He took his overcoat quickly from the
vestibule and was conducted downstairs. The concierge opened the door
for him, looking first through the peep-hole into the street. Then he
exclaimed in great excitement: “Sir, there is a policeman standing
there!” He opened the door, however, and Wenk went out. The policeman
saluted. Wenk saw the uniformed official smiling, and looking back,
found the concierge smiling too. The “policeman” belonged to the
“Go-ahead” Institute. If a real policeman were to enter the street, as
the concierge hastily informed the departing guest, he would see that
there was already someone on guard and move off.
Wenk soon reached the spot where he had ordered his chauffeur to
wait. He was resolved to have this place closed, but he did not want
the affair to get into the papers, and on his drive homeward he
was considering how best to formulate the charge. If possible the
place should not be described, but the cause should be given as that
of disturbance of the peace, misleading of the public, swindling
performances, or something of that kind. He worked the matter out
fully, engaged in his conflict with the “Go-ahead” Institute, and while
still in his car, in his character of prosecuting counsel, he conducted
an indictment which through his skill and stratagem should eliminate
this plague-spot from public life without folks perceiving what it
actually was.
Before he slept, his thoughts, without any apparent connection to
guide them, reverted to Hull, who stood suddenly revealed to him as
typical of the young men of the age. Bound by a liaison with a vulgar,
good-for-nothing girl, whose only talent was to exhibit herself on
the stage; elegantly dressed, without being elegant; spending his
restless evenings between gaming-houses, night-clubs, and the arms of
a courtesan--this was Hull’s life. Yet if he had taken the right turn
he might have put his intelligence and all his available energies into
administering an estate or pursuing a well-ordered peaceful life as an
official of some kind; he might have been the head of a happy household
and the father of legitimate children.
Many such men there were, strong in body and mind, living merely on