Loser Takes All: The Serial (1957) -- Chapter Four

The following day morning, Tony and Cary try to remind Mr. Dreuther that he must serve as witness to their marriage, and four times they ask the message office if anything had arrived for them, but without success. This silence appears to them more and more strange...

Tony pretends to ignore the fact that since yesterday, Cary’s opinion could have easily been changed.

They arrive at the casino, which is nearly desolate at this hour of the day... the room is no longer quite as animated.

But they don't bet on the same number, as Cary would have liked, because Tony's mathematical brain has divided the stakes to balance their chances of winning. The small ball turns, while croupiers launch their monotonous announcements ... Tony is very curious to see if predictions based on mathematical calculations can have a satisfactory result ... Cary recites in a low voice the magic formulas that she used, when she was child. The calculation of probabilities balances wins and losses, but Tony notes a deficit of hundred francs. Cary, on the other hand, only sees their wins, which excites her considerably...

In time Cary comes to understands that the only means to win is not to play at all. But the roulette helps to distract them for a while. Early afternoon, they go on the terrace that overlooks the harbor, and Tony shouts:

Certain now of the arrival of their protector, they hurry in hotel, and get dressed for the bridal ceremony. Then they descend to the Office...

Cary: What dummies we are! If Mr. Dreuther is traveling by yacht, he doesn't need to stay in a hotel! We should go to the harbor... but now we don't have the time ... we should rush to the Town Hall... I’m sure Mr. Dreuther is waiting there for us!

Tony runs in pursuit of the carriage, which is drawn, as luck would have it, by a horse which has no desire to run anywhere ... and as the driver doesn't seem to have heard Tony's desperate calls, the young man physically arrests the carriage with a diligence that would be strongly applauded in a western. The carriage finally is stopped, and the two young people climb aboard quickly but then waste precious minutes explaining their destination to the coachman. The horse then attacks the climb with a pace that would have delighted the two lovers, were they not so full of anguish at being late.

In spite of Tony's fears, the Fates are not against them, and they arrive in town hall in time, where they get married without any other difficulty than finding two second-hand witnesses, since there was no trace of Mr. Dreuther. The young fiances find themselves in a modest office where they unite for life and find themselves much moved by the ceremony, in spite of the absence of formality. They find themselves equally moved by the disappearance of Mr. Dreuther ... moved to consider the terrifying difficulties that are resulting from his absence. All of which doesn't prevent Cary from feeling the poetry of the moment deeply. Her eyes are lost in her dream of happiness, while Tony cannot stop himself from returning to his former worries...

In spite of the unsuccessful arrival of Mr. Dreuther, everything would have been wonderful had not the ineffable hotel clerk taken Tony aside, upon his return to the hotel, to present him with the bill. When Tony returns to the royal apartment, he finds Cary very delightfully disposed towards her newly legitimate spouse. Tony, on the other hand, is now a trifle absent-minded.

Cary: Let's see: one, two, three... [Ed Note: “going over the numbers” appears to have been a little game between the two of them, better left to the imagination, since the summary gave no indication of just why Tony would appreciate Cary’s counting skills quite so much. However, we’ll have to wait for the movie to find out just what they were doing.]

But the following day, the light of day illuminates their problem even more cruelly, and Cary becomes as worried as Tony. Dreuther doesn't seem to have any intention of arriving.

Just then a telegram arrives that Tony quickly reads in a loud voice, which allows a curious character, seated in a wheelchair, to overhear with great interest.

Tony (reading aloud): “To answer your telegram of this morning Dreuther is on his yacht stop Formal order to only disturb him for urgent matters stop. Impossible to help you, Bullen stop.” Oh, that’s wonderful. For Dreuther, we are not an urgent matter.

Man: If you are an employee of the S.I.F.A., it is I who am your director. I am Alain Boles, the third shareholder and the real referee of the Society. Believe me, don't ever trust Dreuther. Now, call my nurse for me...

For several seconds, Cary has been making strange signs at her husband... once the nurse has disappeared, she tells him that the director of the hotel has been watching them in a troubling way ...

Man: It is unforgivable for me to disturb you like this ... excuse me, but I believe that I can provide you the financial means that you so anxiously seek. I have my reasons to believe that fortune has betrayed you... and I have excellent news for you ...

Tony's mathematical genius feels spellbound by the apparently absurd number dance that the man makes sparkle before eyes. He immediately understands possibilities and deficiencies of the system, but what makes the system whole is not so much the financial gain at the roulette wheel as it is the attraction of an unpublished mathematical problem. And Tony himself dives into it furiously... while leaning on the bar...

Meanwhile Cary, who has studied the hat lady's begging technique, throws herself decidedly into the fray. But she quickly realizes that something must have escaped her... because she receives only refusals. In some cases, she receives a gesture that could be interpreted any number of ways.

Cary tries futilely to explain that her husband is the young man leaning on the bar. Tony, naturally, doesn't notice anything, any more than he would have heard a bomb exploding in the room. He is engrossed in his calculations, while his wife is getting herself expelled rather ignominiously. But, there is someone in the room who, seeing her embarrassment, hurries to help.

Tony is so absorbed that he doesn't even hear the desperate calls of his wife. The Englishman must shake him vigorously to attract his attention.

The incident is only closed by the complete narration of events, and the return of the couple to the hotel, where they took a less expensive room. Tony is deeply irritated by his wife's conduct, and Cary is not any happier than he is.

Tony: I don’t care what your young Englishman thinks! I think I’ve found a practically infallible system. Okay, the man at the bar is only an impostor, who doesn't understand anything about numbers. But I’m different... I assure you, Cary, while he spouted, I glimpsed an infallible plan. You see - the number 19 doesn’t have a square root!

TO BE CONTINUED