“Ah! I remember where I have heard of La Planta before,” Guysburg exclaimed suddenly. “He represented an insurance company in Amsterdam and was called upon to give expert opinion at the time of the diamond robbery I have told you about. Yes, and the company he represented, I remember, was directed by the late Lord Froissart, who committed suicide some time ago.” “Really this is remarkable, Major Guysburg,” Preston exclaimed. “You and I meet at haphazard, we happen to go for a walk, and we find that we each know several things in which the other is directly interested, and which seem to fit into each other like bits of a puzzle. Are you staying long in Dieppe? I should like to talk over several matters with you, and my future wife would be interested to hear what you have just told me.” “And I should be most pleased to tell her. My intention at present is to stay here a week or ten days longer. After that I may go to New York.” It was late when they arrived back at the Royal, where both were staying, but Yootha had not yet returned from the Casino. Nor had Mrs. Mervyn-Robertson come back, they were told at the office. They had just turned to go into the vestibule when they came face to face with Alphonse Michaud, accompanied by the three women Preston had seen him with the night before. “Most remarkable thing I have ever known,” he was saying. “That woman seems to bewitch the tables.” He turned to the hotel manager who was passing. “Tell me,” he said, “do they often break the bank at your Casino?” “Break the bank?” the manager repeated with a smile. “I have been here twenty-two years and can remember only one occasion when the bank failed; that must have been fifteen or more years ago, and the man who broke it was the son of Don Carlos--a little while previously he had won sixty thousand pounds at Monte Carlo and taken that sum away. Has any one broken the bank to-night?” he ended with a laugh. “Yes, that tall, handsome woman staying here who is generally accompanied by two men--one a middle-aged man, the other a youth. Who is she?” “You must mean Mrs. Mervyn-Robertson,” the manager answered. “You don’t mean to say that she has broken the bank!” “She has indeed. She and her two friends and a girl with them sat down to roulette between half-past eight and nine, and luck pursued them from the very outset. We have been watching them for a long time, and I never saw anything like their luck. The mere fact of their backing a number seemed to make the number come up. After a little while the crush round the table became so great that few besides those seated were able to play at all. Finally the croupiers declared the bank was broken, and that there would be no more play to-night.” “You will forgive my speaking to you,” Preston cut in, “but are the people you speak of returning to the hotel now, do you happen to know? They are friends of mine.” Michaud looked hard at him.