“Under ordinary conditions,” said Frank coolly, “the marking cannot be detected. Mr. Darleton has pretended it was necessary for him to wear dark-colored goggles in order to protect his eyes from the lights. Why didn’t he play in the daytime? Because he would then have no excuse for using the goggles, which he does not wear as a rule. With the aid of the goggles he is able to see and understand the marking on the backs of the cards. This makes it possible for him to tell what every man round the table holds. No wonder he knows when to bet and when to drop his cards!” “It’s false!” muttered the accused weakly. “If any one doubts that I speak the truth,” said Merry, “let him feel in Mr. Darleton’s coat pocket on the right-hand side.” A man did so at once, bringing forth a little, tin box, minus the lid, which contained a yellowish, paste-like substance. “That is the luminous paint,” said Frank. “Further doubts will be settled by taking my goggles, with which I detected the fraud, and examining the backs of the cards.” He handed the goggles over, releasing his hold on Darleton, who seemed for the moment incapable of action. The excited players tried the goggles and examined the cards, one after another. All saw the marks distinctly with the aid of the smoke-colored glasses. They discovered that the four aces were marked, each card with a single dot, the kings bore two dots, the queens three dots and the jacks four dots. The ten spot was indicated by a cross, the nine spot showed two crosses, the eight a straight line, the seven two parallel lines, the six a circle, and there the marking stopped. Evidently Darleton had not found time to finish his work on the remainder of the pack. And now Darleton found himself regarded with intense indignation and disgust by all save the fellow who had attempted to come to his aid. Indeed, the indignation of the men was such that they threatened personal violence to the exposed rascal. It seemed that the fellow would not escape from the room without being handled roughly. Before the outburst of indignation, his bravado and nerve wilted, and he became very humble and apprehensive. No wonder he was alarmed for his own safety. Several of those present had lost heavily to him, and they demanded satisfaction of some sort. “He has skinned me out of hundreds!” snarled one man. “I’ll take it out of his hide! I’ll break every bone in his dishonest body!” Two men placed themselves before the infuriated one and tried to reason with him. “What are you going to do?” he shouted. “Are you going to let him off without doing anything?” “We’ll make him fork over what he has won to-night.” “Little satisfaction that will be!” “We’ll find how much money he has on his person and make him give that up.” “That doesn’t satisfy me!” “Then we’ll expel him in disgrace from the club.”