The Tupelo journal., 1911-06-09
76e SPECTRAL
GAMBLER

1t was in February, 1881. | was
pending the winter season at San
Reno and lived in a fine room on
he second floor Of the Hotel Eu-
@ppe. / used to visit Monte Carlo
Repeatedly and to play roulette and
Usually with the same result. | re-
nrned to San Reno with empty
pockets.
One evening l came back from such
In excursion and went to bed with
dxed conclusions eve again TO try
he roulette.
Everything in my was as
usual. At the side Of my bed stood
q little table with q marble top n
IN this was a china ~candlestick- At
he bottom of the candle and on
he top Of the andlestick was a round
piece Of glass through which the can
lie was stuck.
I noticed that 1t was In good shape
and had no crack when l put a new
1 candle in.
/ had a peculiar feeling when !
was about to blow the light out l
smelled the smoke Of gunpowder and
had the idea as If somebody was in
the room.
looked everywhere and could not
find anything suspicious or any trace
of smoke, and laughing about my WI
foolishness, I lay down to sleep. But
although 1 was very tired | could not
sleep, and half awake and half dream
ing, l saw the roulette table before
me and many players around it.
One individual, a a who looked
like an army officer, attracted my
attention. He was pale as a ghost
and seemed to try hard to hide his
nervousness. He continuously turned
the ends of his mustache and when
he made his play and placed his
money. and the %croupfer had taken 1t
lway he smiled grimly and finally hav-
ing apparently lost his last five franc
piece he rose and left the table.
Then I fell asleep. dreamed that
the man whom l had seen was in my
room and looking at me sternly. I
saw a little hole in his forehead and
q drop Of blood coming out of it.
Suddenly I woke up. I had heard
the sound OF falling glass. made
a light and found the glass piece
which had been on the candlestick
broken in two pieces on the marble
plate Of the little table. wondered
how this could have happened, as the
candlestick was not thrown owe by
me while I was sleeping and the
candle was still sticking in it.
On the mex morning l met a friend,
a German count, who had a nice villa
in the outskirts of the city.
/ told him my experience, and he
found it very peculiar. OF course
I lid not tell him of my vision of
the roulette table and about my
dream.
4 In a joking kind of way he re-
marked: We'll, l think the Polish
army officer who committed suicide
In your room a fortnight ago is
probably to blame for the broken
glass. He went broke in Monte Carlo
and probably wanted to break ome
thing in return"
did not say anything further about
the matter, but when | came to my
room | investigated the little table
carefully and lifted the marble plate.
To my surprise l found eight numbers
written upon the bottom Of it.
Should the dream, the breaking of
the glass and the finding of the num-
bers have a connection? l copied the
numbers and went to Monte Carlo to
play them.
But l was ashamed of myself, and
did not put a silver piece on the
table.
The croupier called out mo. 49,"
That was the first number on my
paper slip. l smiled; an accident, I
thought. Then came No. 2, the Sec
ond number on my slip. l was sur
prised and became SO nervous that l
could not move. The third number
Of my slip came, and in succession the
rest of the eight.
!. Now, l was overcome by the
thought of having missed the chance
to win a fortune.
When l slept in my room the roll
lowing night | saw the Polish Of
6cer again In my dream, and. smiling
ly extending his hand to me. he said:
well done, young a Resist all
temptation and let the game alone"
I could not touch a card more,
nd once when l was to join in a
oker game l felt a cold hand holding
nine, and | excused myself. hope
the poor soul Of the suicide may have
found its rest.