Read Online Loser Takes All by Graham Greene - Free Book Online Page B

hotel . . .’ I began.
    â€˜They can’t let me have that amount till the banks open. I want it tonight. You’ve been winning plenty. I’ve watched you. I’ll pay you back before the evening’s out.’
    â€˜People have been known to lose.’
    â€˜I can’t hear what you say,’ he said, shifting his earpiece.
    â€˜I’m sorry, Mr Other,’ I said.
    â€˜My name’s not Other. You know me. I’m A. N. Bowles.’
    â€˜We call you A. N. Other in the office. Why don’t you go to the bank here and cash a cheque? There’s someone always on duty.’
    â€˜I haven’t got a French account, young man. Haven’t you heard of currency regulations?’
    â€˜They don’t seem to be troubling either of us much,’ I said.
    â€˜You’d better come and have a cup of coffee and discuss the matter.’
    â€˜I’m busy just now.’
    â€˜Young man,’ the Other said, ‘I’m your employer.’
    â€˜I don’t recognize anybody but the Gom.’
    â€˜Who on earth is the Gom?’
    â€˜Mr Dreuther.’
    â€˜The Gom. A.N. Other. There seems to be a curious lack of respect for the heads of your firm. Sir Walter Blixon – has he a name?’
    â€˜I believe the junior staff know him as the Blister.’
    A thin smile momentarily touched the grey powdery features. ‘At least that name is expressive,’ A. N. Other remarked. ‘Nurse, you can take a walk for half an hour. You can go as far as the harbour and back. You’ve always told me you like boats.’
    When I turned the chair and began to push Bowles into the bar, a slight sweat had formed on my forehead and hands. An idea had come to me so fantastic that it drove away the thought of Cary and her hungry squire. I couldn’t even wait till I got to the bar. I said, ‘I’ve got fifteen million francs in my safe deposit box at the hotel. You can have them tonight in return for your shares.’
    â€˜Don’t be a fool. They are worth twenty million at par, and Dreuther or Blixon would give me fifty million for them. A glass of Perrier water, please.’
    I got him his water. He said, ‘Now fetch me that five million.’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜Young man,’ he said, ‘I have an infallible system. I have promised myself for twenty years to break the bank. I will not be foiled by a mere five million. Go and fetch them. Unless you do I shall order your dismissal.’
    â€˜Do you think that threat means anything to a man with fifteen million in the safe? And tomorrow I shall have twenty million.’
    â€˜You’ve been losing all tonight. I’ve watched you.’
    â€˜I had expected to lose. It proves my system’s right.’
    â€˜There can’t be two fallible systems.’
    â€˜Yours, I’m afraid, will prove only too fallible.’
    â€˜Tell me how yours works.’
    â€˜No. But I’ll advise you on what is wrong with yours.’
    â€˜My system is my own.’
    â€˜How much have you won by it?’
    â€˜I have not yet begun to win. I am only at the first stage. Tonight I begin to win. Damn you, young man, fetch me that five million.’
    â€˜My system has won over fifteen million.’
    I had got a false impression that the Other was a calm man. It is easy to appear calm when your movements are so confined. But when his fingers moved an inch on his knee he was exhibiting an uncontrollable emotion: his head swayed a minute degree and set the cord of his ear-appliance flapping. It was like the tiny stir of air clinking a shutter that is yet the sign of a tornado’s approach.
    He said, ‘Suppose we have hit on the same system.’
    â€˜We haven’t. I’ve been watching yours. I know it well. You can buy it in a paper packet at the stationer’s for a thousand francs.’
    â€˜That’s false. I thought it out myself, over the years,