“Pshaw!” said he; to which nobody paid any attention. The betting went on. Presently my man tried it again. “Here’s an X on the ace.” And he put an X on the ace. It lost. “Confound it!” he exclaimed, vexatiously. “Here’s twenty-five for the deuce.” He put two Xs and a V on the deuce. The ace won this time, and the deuce lost. And _he_ lost. He was now forty dollars “out.” “Give me some checks,” he said, handing a hundred-dollar bill to the banker. He was evidently going into it more extensively. The banker quietly took his hundred dollars, and counted him out some ivory checks used to represent cash in the game. The betting went on. He laid down five dollars’ worth of checks on the ace and won. He laid down another five and lost. He laid twenty on and lost. He laid twenty more on and lost. “Confound that unlucky ace!” said he, “I will not try it again.” So, he tried betting on two others at once. He laid five on the seven, and thirty on the eight. The seven won and the eight lost. He won five dollars and lost thirty. “Blast the luck!” said he. “Here are the rest of the checks on the ace. I’ll try my luck on it again.” And he placed the remainder of his hundred dollars’ worth of checks on the ace. And lost. He then abruptly mentioned the vulgar name of a place that is also called Hades and Erebus, and wished ugly wishes on himself if he’d bet any more. But he soon thought he would like to try it again—just once. He resolved to risk one bet of a hundred dollars, and if that should lose, he wouldn’t try it again. “Let me see,” said he, “I’ll put it on the ace. No, I won’t. The ace is unlucky for me. I’ll put it on the seven; that won for me once.” He put it on the seven and lost. If he had put it on the ace that time he would have won. He then used profane language, and spoke very disrespectfully of the cards in general, and of the seven-spot in particular. Then he left the room. Presently he returned with a roll of bills in his hand—a thousand-dollar one being placed conspicuously on the outside, as a kind of index, to show what was within. He handed a thousand-dollar bill to the banker, and said: “Change that.” The banker changed it. He then laid down five hundred dollars on the ace and lost. He laid five hundred more on it and lost. He took another thousand-dollar bill from the roll, laid it down, and lost. He laid down another, and won. “Good luck, at last,” said he. “I believe that ace will win again. It will be sure to: it has won so little of late.” So he put three thousand dollars on it. Others followed his example, and two thousand dollars more were laid on the ace. All who sat at the table now, or stood by, looked for the issue with much interest. It lost. This most unfortunate of the gamblers made a slight movement of the hand, as though to place his remaining cash in his pocket and quit; but he hesitated a moment, then placed the whole “pile” on the ace. “There,” said he, “are seven thousand dollars.”