"I think I will take a photo of the scene," said Delapine to the others, "if you will allow me." So saying he rapidly focussed his camera on the lady who had lost her money, and seizing a favourable opportunity when no one was looking at him, pressed the button and secured her photograph. "Why did you take her photograph?" said Renée, looking very anxious. "You can trust me, can't you?" said the professor. "Why of course. You know I didn't mean that. It can't be--Monsieur--" She saw a quivering of her lover's lips, and never concluded the sentence. A deadly pallor swept over her face, and she would have fallen had not Delapine steadied her with his arm. "Now I think we have seen enough for to-day," said the professor, as he folded up his camera and led the way out of the Casino. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 19: As there are 36 numbers and one Zero, the chances are one in 37 in favour of the bank over those of the player, or 2.7 per cent., but owing to the refait which places the stakes on even chances into prison when Zero turns up, it reduces the percentage in favour of the bank on those chances to one half that, or 1.35 per cent. As, however, the money staked is turned over and over again, the bank makes 90 per cent. per annum on its total capital invested, which amounts to about twenty million francs annually.] [Footnote 20: M. Blanc established the tables, and his family hold most of the shares.] CHAPTER XXV DELAPINE TRIES HIS HAND AT THE TABLES "The ball no question makes of Ayes and Noes, But here or there as strikes the Player goes, And he that tossed you down into the Field, He knows about it all--He knows, He knows." _The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám_, verse lxx. "Where is the professor?" asked Villebois at the breakfast table next morning. "Has anyone seen him?" As no one had apparently done so, a deputation was agreed upon to go in search of him and bring him down. Villebois, Payot, Marcel and Riche were selected, and the quartette marched up to his bedroom and knocked. They found him in his dressing-gown sitting at a table apparently deep in thought. All looked at him in amazement. He seemed transformed and unearthly. His face was ghastly pale with his brilliant eyes fixed and staring, while his fingers were twitching nervously. "Professor," exclaimed Villebois, "we have come to tell you that breakfast is nearly over, and everyone is wondering what has become of you." But Delapine made no movement. A roulette wheel stood before him similar to those used in the Casino. Several sheets of paper covered with algebraical equations lay on the table, while at his side was a well-thumbed copy of Vega's Logarithm Tables and Bertrand's and Poincaré's _Calcul des Probabilités_ lay open near it. "Professor, we are waiting for you," said Riche, giving him a gentle slap on the back, but suddenly started back declaring that he had received something like an electric shock. They looked at one another in astonishment.