Argosy, Vol. 123, No. 2 — page 108: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

240 pinched flat under his fingers, and he groaned aloud. He turned his glance to the central court. The crowd was small at this early hour; shortly there breathing space, but now men drifted idly from place to place. Barefooted Mexican boys clad in thin white ran here and there carrying small trays covered with glasses. The size of the glasses proclaimed the dynamic quality of the liquor. That color- less stuff was teguda, or gin; the reddish- brown was whisky of uncertain quality and high proof. Free drinks for the gamesters—the more. they took the better. Yes, at this young hour free’ drinks for every one; trade lagged. A tray was held up in front of Tyson, but he waved it aside. He needed a clear head this night. For behind the roulette-wheel he saw the tall form of Kennedy; and the light struck sharply on two things—the teeth of. the gambler as he smiled, and the -yellow- and-black of the necktie he wore. Rona Garnahan would look for that necktie around the throat of Tyson when they next met. Tyson moved forward involun- tarily, and each step brought him, against his will, closer and closer to Kennedy. The proprietor stood behind the roulette-wheel; the disk of light which the wheel made as it spun was all the advertisement that the game needed—that and the light clicking as it whirred more slowly toward the final pause. Before the wheel the small and silent ‘group was gathered—true roulette players, standing with their eyes fixed on the terri- ble little machine, wagering not more than once every dozen spins. But when they wagered, it was because they had figured out a little system which gave them at that instant a superior chance. A typical roulette crowd, and, therefore, a-crowd which was losing heavily: yet the fascination held them. Once in a while one of them veytured to play a single number,. and always lost, but each time the other players held their breaths and gasped as the little pointer became stationary. For they bad witnessed the great op- portunity—a chance so great that there would hardly be THE ARGOSY. was an element of the divine in it—thirty- six to one! Ten dollars wagered might bring to the lucky man three hundred and sixty! Aye, and if he left his money for a second trial he would be paid seventy- two for one, or twenty-five thousand nine hundred and twenty dollars—all in the space of a few seconds—a fortune—by the bright spinning of a wheel. Indeed, in this game against the wheel chance was dignified, and became worthy of the ponderings of a strongly contempla- tive mind. Perhaps this explained the. philosophical calm of the men who stood about the wheel as Tyson approached. They were Mexicans, mostly, and all that or bad fortune could elicit from them was a flash of teeth or a glint of eyes. Then they pushed their towering sombre- res farther back and lapsed once more into the brown study. | It was one’ of these fellows that Tyson. inadvertently shouldered as he made his way closer to the roulette-wheel—a little man whose palm was as smocth. with pol- ished callouses as fine mahogany. He was so lean that his mouth puckered at the . sides, and yet at the touch of Tyson’s arm he glared up with a sudden ferocity. which deeply appealed to the white man. For he recognized, as it were, a kindred | spirit—a hungry man playing the wheel. As for the Mexican, the angry light died instantly from his eyes—and his labor- withered arms waved through a graceful gesture of welcome. . “El Oro!” he murmured. Tyson smiled down into the yellow face, and in a rush of warm brotherliness ia wanted to take this poor fellow to one side and explain to him how little chance he had to beat the wheel—how sure he was of ruin if he kept at it. For though the wheel in theory gives no advantage to the house and affords an equal chance to the gambler, yet in fact it has a terrific advan- tage, for the whtel is a machine, and no man, however nerveless, can play forever against it. An illusion comes to him, a belief that one color Or one number, or one set of numbers, is more lucky than the rest. His - reason may assure him perfectly that there 6 ARGOSY cComiclbool Cc C@