Explore "The Gamblers" by William Le Queux on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Even though tired out, I slept but little that night. I tried, times without number, but in vain, to solve the secret of that cipher message -- or warning, was it? -- written upon the table before the "Grand Café. " But neither the initial nor the word "tabac" conveyed to me any meaning whatever. One fact seemed particularly strange, namely, the reason why the ragged collector of cigar-ends should have searched for it; and, further, why the word written there should have been "tabac. " Again, who was the shabby, wizen-faced individual who had watched that table with such eagerness and expectancy?
As I reflected, I became impressed by the idea that the table itself was one of those known to be a notice-board of criminals, and therefore at night it was watched by the police.