St. Paul daily globe., 1894-05-06
THE GOLD LOUIS.
A Striking and Characteristic
Story of the Present Time.


In dazed manner Lucien de Hem watched
his last hundred franc note as it was scooped
In by the dealers rake, then rising from the
roulette table, upon which he had just lost
the remnants of the liltle fortune he had
gathered together for this supreme battle,
he reeled forward experiencing feeling Of
great faintness
His head swimming, his limbs trembling
under him, he hastened to throw himself on
the leather couch, which ran the length of
the gambling room. For few moments he
gazed vaguely around the forbidden hell in
which he had frittered away the best years of
his life, recognized the unkempt heads of
the players, crudely illuminated by the three
large lamps, listened to the light clink of
the gold as it fell on the table, realized that
he was ruined, lost and remembered that
in his bureau drawer at home lay his
fathers ordonnance pistols. His noble father,
who, but a simple captain, had fought so
bravely at the attack on Zaatcha, that he had
been made General de Hem. Then, over
come by fatigue, he fell into profound
slumber
He awoke suddenly, and looking at the
clock, found that he had slept hardly half
an hour; he felt that he must go out and
breathe the fresh night air. The hand on the
dial pointed to quarter to twelve. AS he
rose and stretched out his arms, the recol-
lection came upon him like flash that it
was Christmas Eve, and, by an ironical trick
of memory, he saw himself once more a
little child, putting his shoes before the
chimney, in preparation for the Christ child.
Just then old Dronski-an old tippler, who
hung around the gambling hell, approached
Lucien and mumbled few words, which
were hardly audible through his gray beard.
"Lend me five franc piece, monsieur.
For ten days I have not left the room, and
for two days the ''dix-sept' has not turned
up. Make fun of me, if you will, but give
you my word of honor that on the stroke
of midnight the number will come OUT
Lucien de Hem shrugged his shoulders;
he did not have the wherewlthal in his pock-
ct to pay this tax, which the habitues of
the place called ..the poles hundred sous.''
He passed out into the anteroom, put on his
hat and oyercoat, and ran down. the stairs
with the velocity of person burning with
fever.
During the four hours which Lucien had
passed in the gambling house there had
been heavy fall of snow, and the street -
narrow street in the heart of Paris, shut
in by high houses-wa all white. In the
deep blue of the overhanging heavens the
cold stars shone brightly.
The ruined gambler shivered under his
furs and started to walk briskly. turning
over in his mind despairing thoughts, and
having the case of pistols which lay in his
bureau drawer constantly before his eyes.
He had hardly taken dozen steps, when he
stopped suddenly, brought to standstill by
a heart-rending spectacle.
On stone bench, placed according to an
old-time custom, near the carved door of
private hotel, a little girl of six or seven
years was seated in the snow; her little body
was barely covered with black dress, which
hung in tatters around her. She had fallen
asleep there in spite of the bitter cold, in an
attitude but too plainly bespeaking fatigue
and utter misery, and her poor little head
and pretty shoulders were crouched in an
angle Of the wall resting on the frozen stones.
One of her wooden sabots had fallen from her
pendant foot and lay piteously in front of
her.
>. With a mechanical movement Lucien
de HENS hand went to his vest pocket but
he remembered that he had an instant before
been unable to find q forgotten piece of
twenty sous, and that he had not been able
to give pour boi,-e to the ga,'con at the club.
However, filed with an instructive sentiment
of pity, he drew near the little girl; the idea
may have flashed through his mind of lifting
her in his arms and giving her shelter for the
night, when in the sabot which had fallen in
the snow he saw something glittering.
He leaned over. It was a golden louis!
Some charitable person, a woman doubt
less, passing by, had seen this shoe before
the sleeping child, and recalling the touching
Christmas legend, had quietly dropped this
magnificent gift so that the little one, upon
awakening, would still have faith in the gifts
OF the child Jesus, and retain, notwithstand-
ing her misery, some confidence and hope in
the goodness of Providence.
louis! That meant many days OF rest
and wealth for the beggar, and Lucien was
on the point Of awakening her to tell her so,
when he heard, as in dream, voice-that
of the Pole, with his whining, dragging
accent these words in low
tone:
"For two days have not left the room, and
for two days the "dix-sept'' has not turned
up. I give you my word of honor, that, upon
the stroke of midnight, the number will come
OUT
Then this young man of twenty three, who
descended from race of honest men, who
carried a great military name and who had
never been found wanting in honor, con-
ceived a afrightful idea; he was possessed with
wild, hysterical, monstrous idea. With
one hasty glance he ASSURED himself that he
was alone in the deserted street, and getting
on his knees and creeping cautiously along,
with trembling hands he stole the gold louis
from the fallen sabot. Then running as fast
as he could, he reached the gambling house,
climbed the staircase in a few bounds, pushed
open the door of the accursed room and re-
entered at the precise moment that the clock
sounded the first stroke of midnight, and
throwing the piece of gold nthe green cloth,
he cried:
"En pleine, sur lie 'dix-sept!'" Z;
The s'dix-sept" won.
With twist of the wrist Lucien placed the
thirty-six louis on the red.
Red won.
He left the seventy-two louis on the same
color. Red won again.
He staked again, twice, three times, and
always with the same good fortune. He now
had a pile of gold and hank notes before him.
He tried every known combination, and they
were all successful. It was unheard Of, sup
ernatural luck. 1t almost seemed as though
this little ivory ball, jumping from one rou-
lette circle to another, was magnetized, fas-
cinated by the gaze of this gambler and