Part 14 (1/2)

Here, in re the house for its present purposes, partitions had arbitrarily been dispensed with, aside fro the well of the stairway; the floor was one large rooames of chance With but few of these was P

Sybarite familiar; but on information and belief hehad nation of _les petits chevaux_, and at either end of the saloon, i tables ht The walls, otherwise severely unadorned, were covered with lustrous golden fabric; the ere invisible, cloaked in splendid golden hangings; the carpet, golden brown in tone, was of a velvet pile so heavy that it completely ularly quiet for one that harboured some two-score players in addition to a full corps of dealers, croupiers, watchers, and waiters The al ivory balls with their clattering over theof chips, dispassionate voices of croupiers, and an occasional low-pitched comment on the part of one or another of the patrons, seemed only to lend emphasis to the hush

The warmth of the roo convinced P Sybarite that, barring the servants, he was a lonely exception to the rule of evening dress

But this discovery disco in his head, his demeanour, not to mince matters, rakehelly, with an eye alert for the ent hands in his trouser pockets, teeth tight upon that adar, he strutted hither and yon, ostensibly as ent in a theatre lobby

A few minutes sufficed to de those present; which fact, coupled with the doorkeeper's averment that Mr Bailey Penfield was out, persuaded P

Sybarite that this last was neither more nor less than the proprietor of the pre his conviction regarding the _soi-disant_ Miss Lessing; he couldn't iton in any way involved with a coed constantly to revise his hasty inferences, he considered tremendously tiresome It left one all up in the air!

His tour ended at last in a pause by the roulette table at the rear of the rooered there, head cocked shrewdly on one shoulder, a speculative pensiveness infor his eyes, his interest plainly aloof and impersonal This despite the fact that his e , leaving an enduring refulgence wherever it passed

There were perhaps half a dozen players round the board--four on one wing, two on the other Of the latter, one was that very young e of al was frittering away five-dollar notes on the colours, the columns, and the dozens: his ill success stupendous, his apparent indifference positively nificent

But in the course of the little while that P Sybarite watched, he either greeary or succeeded in erunt of iust

The ball ran its course thrice before he er to the croupier: ”Five on the red, Andy,” said he

”Five on the red,” repeated the croupier; and set aside a chocolate-coloured chip in ain to rest, the announcement was monotonously recited: ”Nine, red, odd, first dozen” And the blase prodigal was presented with the chocolate-coloured token

Carelessly he tossed it upon the red diamond Black won Unperturbed, he made a second oral bet, this tier to ten dollars on black--and lost; made it twenty, shi+fted to red, and lost; dropped back to five-dollar bets for three turns of the wheel, and lost them all Fifty dollars in debt to the house, he rose, nodded casually to the croupier, left the rooled envy and a three weeks' wages and a third of another week's without turning a hair! Fancy losing fifty dollars without being required to pay up!

”Looks easy,”

At precisely that instant the torchlight procession penetrated a territory theretofore unaffected, which received it with open ars and even went so far as to start up a couple of bonfires of its own and hang out several strings of japanese lanterns

In theskyrockets and Roolden sparks, P Sybarite was shocked to hear his own voice

”Five on the red,” it said distinctly, with an effect of extravagant apathy

A thought later he caught the croupier's eye and drove the wager ho

Five dollars! All he had in the world!

The _whirr_ of the deadly little ball in its ebony runas like nothing less than the exultant shriek of a banshee Instantaneously (as if an accident had happened in the power house) every light in his body went out and left it cold and dark and altogether disan his chant: ”Three, red--!”

P Sybarite failed to hear the rest All the lights were on again, full blast The croupier tossed him a chocolate token He was conscious that he touched it with nu it upon the red dia minute of suspense

”Twenty-five, red--!”

A second brown chip appeared arded both stupidly; afraid to touch them, his brain communicated to his hand the impulse to re moveless in listless mutiny