To satisfy myself on that point I am going
to play again--until I have lost my winnings and am just square
with the game. When I reach the point that I am convinced that
some crooked work is going on I am going to try a little
experiment, Walter. I want you to stand close to me so that no
one can see what I am doing. Do just as I will indicate to you."
The gambling-room was now fast filling up with the first of the
theatre crowd. DeLong's table was the centre of attraction, owing
to the high play. A group of young men of his set were
commiserating with him on his luck and discussing it with the
finished air of roues of double their ages. He was doggedly
following his system.
Kennedy and I approached.
"Ah, here is the philosophical stranger again;" DeLong exclaimed,
catching sight of Kennedy. "Perhaps he can enlighten us on how to
win at roulette by playing his own system."
"Au contrarie, monsieur, let me demonstrate how to lose,"
answered Craig with a smile that showed a row of faultless teeth
beneath his black moustache, decidedly foreign.
Kennedy played and lost, and lost again; then he won, but in the
main he lost. After one particularly large loss I felt his arm on
mine, drawing me closely to him. DeLong had taken a sort of grim
pleasure in the fact that Kennedy, too, was losing.
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