"Leave me out," said a man, counting his imposing stack of chips. "Never mind, I’ll play this one." A hand had been dealt him. "But I’ve got to go after this hand; oughtn’t to stay as long as I do. Got to catch a train. Who opened it?" "I did," replied a regular. "Raise you." "So soon? Well, I’ll have to trot you. Tear me one off the roof." "I’ll play these," said the man who had to catch a train. "You’d better take some. He won’t come round again. Well, I’ll chip it up to you." "Raise you three." The regular raised him back. The man who had to go raised, and the regular fired back at him, nor did the contest end here, but when it did end the regular spread an ace full to overcast with the shade of defeat three queens and a pair. And the man who had been in a hurry continued to sit there. At short intervals, during half an hour or more, he had snapped his watch, but he did not snap it now. Trains might come and trains might go, but he was not compelled to catch them; he lost his last chip, bought more, lost, and, finally, accepted carfare from the man at the desk. Bodney won, and the world threw off its sables and put on bright attire, and at two o’clock he thought of cashing in, though not quite even. He lacked just seventy-five cents—three red chips. He would play one more pot. He lost, and now he was two dollars behind, the pot having been opened for a dollar and twenty-five cents. Pretty soon he had a big hand beaten. "I see my finish," he said. "You can’t win every pot," replied a railway engineer, who had failed to take out his train. "I have four pat hands beat and every set of threes I pick up. Serves me right. Pot somebody for a bottle of beer." "You’re on," replied the dealer, a comical-looking countryman, known as Cy. "Deal ’em lower, I can see every card," someone remarked; and just at that moment Cy turned over a deuce and replied: "Can’t deal ’em much lower than that, can I?" But who is this going down the stairs just as daylight is breaking? And why is he making such gestures? It is Bodney, and he is swearing that he will never play again. *CHAPTER XIII.* *WANTED TO SEE HIS SON.*