Night Games: And Other Stories and Novellas (6 page)

"The nicest thing would be to take two boxes side by side," observed Fraulein Kessner, and smiled in the direction of Elrief, who
smiled back enthusiastically.

Willi kissed the hand of all the ladies, once more saluted in the direction of the officer's table, and a minute later was sitting in the consul's
carriage.

"Hurry," he said to the coachman. "You'll get a good tip."

In the indifference with which the driver received this promise,
Willi thought he detected an annoying lack of respect. Still, the horses
maintained a good clip, and in five minutes they were at the station. But
at precisely the same moment the train, which had arrived just a minute
earlier, began to move from the gate in the station above. Willi leaped
from the carriage, started after the brightly lit coaches as they moved
slowly and heavily forward across the viaduct, heard the whistle of the
locomotive fade into the night air, shook his head, and didn't quite know
whether he was angry or pleased. The coachman sat indifferently on his
high seat and was stroking one of the horses with the handle of his whip.
"There's nothing to be done," Willi finally declared. And, turning to the
coachman, he directed, "Back to the Cafe Schopf."

VI

It was pleasant to whirl through the small town in a carriage, but next
time it would be even more pleasant to drive out into the country, either
to Rodaun or to the Rote Stadl, on such a mild summer evening as this, in
the company of an attractive female creature, and to have supper outdoors. Ah, what bliss not to have to turn every gulden over twice before
being able to decide to spend it! Careful, Willi, careful, he told himself,
and firmly resolved not to risk all his winnings but only half of them at most. Moreover he would use Flegmann's system: begin with small bets,
don't increase them until you have won, and then never risk the whole
amount at once but only three-fourths of it, and so on. Dr. Flegmann always began with this system, but he didn't have the discipline to carry it
through. So of course he got nowhere with it.

In front of the cafe, Willi swung himself off the coach before it had
even stopped, and gave the coachman a generous tip, so much that he
could have hired a carriage himself for the same amount. The coachman's gratitude still left something to be desired, but he was amiable
enough.

The card party was still assembled and now included the consul's
girlfriend, Fraulein Mitzi Rihoscheck-a stately-looking woman with
excessively black eyebrows but otherwise not too highly made up, wearing a light summer dress and a flat-brimmed straw hat with a red band on
her brown, well-waved hair. She sat next to the consul, one arm thrown
across the back of his chair, watching his cards. He did not look up as
Willi approached the table, yet the lieutenant could feel that the consul
was at once aware of his arrival.

"Missed the train!" observed Greising.

"By half a minute," answered Willi.

"That's the way it goes," remarked Wimmer, and dealt the cards.

Flegmann was just excusing himself, having lost three times in a
row with a small bet against a large one. Elrief was still in, though he had
not a kreuzer left. A heap of bills lay in front of the consul.

"Big stakes tonight!" said Willi, and immediately bet ten gulden instead of the five he had intended. His boldness was rewarded: he won
and kept winning. On a small side table stood a bottle of cognac. Fraulein
Rihoscheck poured the lieutenant a small glass and gave it to him with an
engaging smile. Elrief begged him for a loan of fifty gulden to be paid
back punctually tomorrow at noon. Willi passed him the bill. A second
later it had already wandered over to the consul. Elrief stood up, drops of
perspiration on his forehead. At that moment Weiss arrived in his yellow
flannel suit, and a whispered conversation resulted in his paying the actor
back the money he had borrowed from him that afternoon. Elrief lost this last amount, too, and-quite unlike what the gallant viscount that he
hoped to play soon would have done-shoved his chair back in a rage,
stood up muttering a curse under his breath, and left the room. When he
did not reappear after a certain time, Fraulein Rihoscheck also stood up,
stroked the consul's hair with a delicate and abstracted gesture, and disappeared.

Wimmer and Greising, and even Tugut, had become careful as the
end of the session approached. Only the theatre manager still displayed
some boldness. But the game was gradually taking the form of a contest
between Lieutenant Kasda and Consul Schnabel. Willi's luck had
shifted; apart from the thousand he had reserved for his old comrade
Bogner, he had scarcely a hundred gulden left. If these hundred go, I'm
definitely stopping, he swore to himself. But he didn't believe it. What is
this Bogner to me after all? he thought. I owe him nothing!

Fraulein Rihoscheck reappeared humming a melody, fixed her hair
in front of a large mirror, lit a cigarette, took up a billiard cue, tried a few
shots, put the cue back in the corner, and then amused herself by spinning alternately first the white, then the red, balls on the green cloth. A
cold glance from the consul called her back to the table, and, humming
once more, she took her place by his side again, resting her arm over the
back of his chair. A student song, many voices strong, broke into the stillness that had long since settled outside. How are they going to get back
to Vienna today? Willi wondered. Then it occurred to him that they could
be students from the local gymnasium in Baden. Since Fraulein Rihoscheck had sat opposite him again, his luck was slowly returning. The
song became more and more distant, and gradually died out. A bell struck
in a church tower.

"A quarter to one," said Greising.

"This'll be the last round," declared the regiment doctor.

"A last round for everyone," suggested First Lieutenant Wimmer.

The consul indicated his agreement with a nod.

Willi didn't say a word. He won, lost, drank a glass of cognac, won,
lost, lit a new cigarette, won and lost. Tugut's bank held for a long time.
The consul finally relieved him of it with a large bet. Curiously enough, Elrief reappeared after almost an hour's absence, and, still more curiously, he had money again. With an elegant indifference, as though nothing had happened, he sat down again in the manner of that viscount he
would probably never play, and he had even added a new attitude of superior indifference, which he had really copied from Dr. Flegmann: halfclosed, weary eyes. He put down a bank of three hundred gulden, as if
that were the most commonplace thing to do, and won. The consul lost to
him, then to the army doctor, and especially to Willi, who soon found
himself in possession of no less than three thousand gulden. That meant a
new military cape, a new sword belt, new linen, patent leather shoes, cigarettes, dinners for two and even three, rides in the Vienna Woods, two
months' leave of absence with his vacation-and at 2 a.m. he had won
four thousand two hundred gulden. There they lay before him, a concrete
reality that could not be doubted-four thousand two hundred gulden,
more or less. The others had all pulled back and scarcely played anymore.

"That's enough," said Consul Schnabel abruptly.

Willi was of two minds. If they stopped now, nothing more could
happen to him, and that was good. At the same time he felt an uncontrollable, truly fiendish urge to continue playing, to conjure a few more, no,
all of the remaining crisp thousand-gulden bills out of the consul's wallet
into his own. That would be a hoard with which he could make his fortune! It didn't always have to be baccarat-there were also the horse
races at Freudenau and the Trabrennplatz, and there were also fine casinos such as the one at Monte Carlo on the seacoast-with beautiful
women from Paris.... While his thoughts drifted in this direction, the
regiment doctor was trying to rouse the consul to one last round. Elrief
poured the cognac as though he were the host. He himself was drinking
his eighth glass. Fraulein Mitzi Rihoscheck swayed her body and
hummed a soundless melody. Tugut gathered the scattered cards and
shuffled them. The consul remained silent. Suddenly he called for the
waiter and ordered two new, fresh decks of cards. Everyone's eyes lit up.
The consul glanced at his watch and said, "Till half past two on the dot,
and that's final!"

It was five minutes after two.

VII

The consul put down a bank larger than any this company had ever
seen-three thousand gulden. Apart from the players and a single waiter,
there was not a soul left in the cafe. The song of the morning birds was
already drifting in through the open door. The consul lost, but for the
time being he maintained himself as banker. Elrief had completely recovered his losses and withdrew from the game upon a warning glance from
Fraulein Rihoscheck. The others, all somewhat ahead, played on modestly and carefully. Half the bank was still intact.

"The whole bank!" Willi suddenly proposed, and was frightened at
his own words-at the very tone of his voice. Have I lost my mind? he
wondered. The consul uncovered a nine, and Willi was fifteen hundred
gulden the poorer. Remembering Flegmann's system, Willi now put
down a ridiculously small sum, fifty gulden-and won. How stupid! he
thought. I could have won the whole amount back at once! Why was I so
cowardly'?

"The bank, again!"

He lost.

"The bank, once more!"

The consul appeared to hesitate.

"What has come over you, Kasda!" cried the regiment doctor.

Willi laughed and felt an intoxication rise into his head. Was it the
cognac that was dulling his reason? Evidently. Of course he had made a
mistake, not in his wildest dreams had he intended to risk a thousand or
two thousand on a single bet.

"Excuse me, Consul, I really meant-"

The consul did not let him finish. In an amiable tone he said, "If you
didn't know how much money was in the bank, of course I will take your
retraction into consideration."

"What do you mean, retraction into consideration, Consul?" Willi
found himself saying. "A bet is a bet."

Was it really he who was speaking? His words? His voice? If he
were to lose, it would be all over with the new military cape, the new sword belt, the dinners in attractive female company. He would have left
only the thousand earmarked for that swindler Bogner-and he himself
would be the same poor devil that he had been two hours ago.

Wordlessly, the consul uncovered his card. Nine. No one uttered the
number out loud, yet it resounded loudly throughout the room like the
echo of a ghost. Willi felt a strange moisture on his brow. Damn, that was
quick! Well, at any rate, he still had a thousand gulden lying in front of
him, maybe a few more. He didn't want to count them-that would bring
bad luck. In any case, he was still considerably richer than he had been
when he had stepped off the train today at noon. Today at noon? And,
after all, nothing was forcing him to risk the whole thousand at once. He
could begin again with a hundred or two hundred, using Flegmann's system. Only there was so little time left-hardly twenty minutes. There
was silence all around.

"Lieutenant?" the consul began inquiringly.

"Ah-yes," Willi laughed, and folded the thousand-gulden bill together.

"Half, Consul," he said.

"Five hundred?"

Willi nodded. The others also placed bets, but merely out of formality. An end-of-the-game atmosphere was already settling over them. First
Lieutenant Wimmer was standing up with his coat over his shoulders.
Tugut was leaning over the billiard table. The consul uncovered his card.

"Eight." And half of Willi's thousand was gone. He shook his head
as though something were amiss.

"The rest," he said, and thought to himself: I'm really quite calm.
He uncovered his cards slowly. Eight. The consul had to buy a card.
Nine. And the five hundred was gone, the thousand was gone. Everything was gone! Everything? No. He still had the hundred and twenty
gulden with which he had come, more or less. Funny, suddenly he was
once more the same poor devil he had been before. And outdoors the
birds sang ... as they had before ... when he could have gone to Monte
Carlo. Well, it was a pity, but now he really had to stop. He certainly
couldn't risk the few gulden that he still had ... he had to stop, though there was still a quarter of an hour left to play. What bad luck! In a quarter of an hour he could win five thousand gulden as easily as he had just
lost them!

"Lieutenant?" asked the consul.

"I'm very sorry," replied Willi in a high-pitched, grating voice, and
pointed to the few miserable bills lying in front of him. His eyes were almost laughing, and almost as a joke he placed ten gulden on a card. He
won. Then twenty. And won again. Fifty-and won again. His blood
mounted into his head; he could have cried with rage. Now his luck was
back-and it was too late. And with a sudden, bold idea he turned to the
actor who was standing behind him near Fraulein Rihoscheck.

"Herr von Elrief, would you be so kind as to loan me two hundred
gulden?"

"I'm terribly sorry," replied Elrief, shrugging his shoulders aristocratically. "You saw that I lost everything, down to the last kreuzer, Lieutenant." It was a lie, and everyone knew it. But it seemed they found it
quite proper that the actor Elrief should lie to the lieutenant. But the consul casually thrust a few bills to him across the table, seemingly without
counting them. "Please help yourself," he said. Tugut cleared his throat
audibly. Wimmer warned, "I'd stop if I were you, Kasda."

Willi hesitated.

"I don't wish to persuade you in any way, Lieutenant," said Schnabel. He still held his hand spread lightly over the money.

At that Willi hastily grasped the bills, then acted as if he wanted to
count them.

"It's fifteen hundred," said the consul. "You can depend upon it,
Lieutenant. Do you want a card?"