The Three Musketeers (The Modern Library) - Alexandre Dumas [155]
“You lost my horse?”
“I lost your horse with a throw of seven against the Englishman’s eight. Short of one point! You know the saying.”
“Athos, I vow you have taken leave of your senses.”
“That is what you should have told me yesterday, my dear fellow, when I was spinning all those foolish yarns. This morning it is too late for such strictures. So to be frank, D’Artagnan, I lost your horse with all his harness, accoutrement and equipment.”
“But this is ghastly!”
“Wait, lad, you have not heard all. You know I would make a very competent gambler if I was not so stubborn; but I get stubborn, just as when I drink. So I got stubborn again . . .”
“But what could you wager? You had nothing left?”
“On the contrary, my friend, we still had that diamond sparkling on your finger. I noticed it yesterday and thought: what a valuable piece!”
Panic-stricken, D’Artagnan fumbled for his ring.
“My diamond!” he gasped.
“Precisely,” Athos went on suavely. “And since I am a connoisseur, having owned quite a few myself, I estimated it at one thousand pistoles.”
D’Artagnan, overcome with fright, said:
“Merciful Heavens! I do hope you did not mention my diamond!”
“On the contrary, my friend. You must understand that your diamond was now our only resource. With it I might win back our horses and our harnesses and even enough cash to get us home.”
“Athos, I am appalled; I shudder!”
“Well, I mentioned your diamond to the English gentleman who, it appears, had noticed it too. What the devil, my lad, you simply cannot walk around with a star from Heaven on your finger and expect no one to notice it. That would be ludicrous.”
“Get on, Athos, get on, my friend, I implore you. I swear your sang-froid and phlegm are driving me mad.”
“This is what happened: we divided the diamond into ten parts, each worth one hundred pistoles.”
“Bah!” D’Artagnan said, anger seizing him as violently as ever Minerva seized Achilles by the hair in the Iliad, “You are badgering me in jest. You want to make me lose my Gascon temper.”
“Mordieu, I have never been less in a mood for jesting. I should have liked to see you in my place. What in God’s name would you have done? Here I had been out of circulation for a whole fortnight; I had not seen a human face except Grimaud’s which I know by heart; my sole consolation was our host’s wine—excellent wine, I admit—for it provided me with the handsomest possible means of stultification and stupefaction.”
“That was no reason for staking my diamond,” D’Artagnan protested, clenching his fists in a nervous spasm.
“Do hear me out,” Athos replied. “Remember: we had ten parts of the diamond to gamble for, each worth one hundred pistoles. We agreed that we would play these ten points and then there was to be an end to it. At the thirteenth throw, I had lost everything! Number thirteen has always been fatal; it was on July thirteenth that I—”
“God’s body!” cried D’Artagnan, rising angrily from the table. Today’s story erased from his memory all trace of the tragic story he had heard the night before. “I—”
“Patience, my friend,” Athos counseled. “Mine was a sound plan. That Englishman was a crackpot or at least an eccentric like many of his race. I saw him conversing with Grimaud two mornings ago; and Grimaud immediately reported back to me that the Milord wished to attach him to his household. What could I do, knowing all this, but set up Grimaud, my silent Grimaud, as a stake divided into ten parts, each worth one hundred pistoles.”
Vexed though he was, D’Artagnan could not help laughing at the comicality of the situation:
“You used Grimaud as a stake?” he asked incredulously, roaring with laughter.
“Yes,” Athos pursued nonchalantly, “and with the ten parts of Grimaud, who is not worth a decatoon in toto, I won back your diamond. Now, tell me if persistence is not a lofty virtue?”
Somewhat relieved, D’Artagnan gave free run to his mirth:
“Very funny!” he said. “I haven’t heard as amusing a story in years!”
“You may well imagine that finding my luck turning, I immediately staked the diamond