The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1912-05-02
CHAPTER u.

CHAPTER u.
After that bitter disappointment MS
interest in his personal appearance
dwindled to the negligible. In black
temper with himself (whom alone ne
blamed for the deception to which
he had fallen too facile victim) ne
searched blindly for fresh tie, found
1t somehow, and knotted 1t round his
collar in the most haphazard fashion
Imaginable. Then he shrugged a dress
coat upon his shoulders and marched
forth to dine.
In this humor he propelled himself
with determination into the public res
taurant of the establishment. and. OBJ
livious to the allure of many pairs OF
bright eyes that frightened all too
readily to challenge his, insisted upon
table all to himself and dined in soil
tary grandeur, COMFORTING himself
openly as a morose and misunderstood
person, and to his waiter with man
ner so near rude that the latter BE-
gan almost to respect him.
After some time he was disguised to
discover that he felt better. An Inn
pulse toward analysis led him to probe
the psychology of the change. with the
result that he laid the blame for it at
the door-or the neck-of half-bottle
of excellent burgundy. So he ordered
another, and, resolutely dismisslng
from his mind the woman who had
no right whatever to be able to sing
a certain song the way she had, set
his wits to work on the riddle OF To-
morrow.
To a man whose trade was fighting,
the world just then was most dis
tressful place, too peaceful entirely
Over his coffee the adventurer nod
ded In despair and frowned In dis
gust; then rousing, he summoned the
waiter and paid his reckoning with
secret grin at himself, a fifty-franc
note and gesture which splendidly
obliterated altogether every trace of
suspicion that he intended to take
back any part of the change due him.
Trimming and lighting a cigar, he
reviewed the restaurant with list
less eye which discovered no one of
his acquaintance; therefore, with
neither haste nor waste of time. he
rose and betook himself to the Casino
that is, to the one place where one
may feel certain of encountering, Soon
err or later, everybody who is anybody
within tho bounds of the principally.
This night, more particularly than
on any preceding it, now that he had
made up his mind to seek betterment
of his fortunes elsewhere, he played
heedlessly, little concerned with the
fate of what money he had about him.
He had set aside reserve fund sufi-
cient to settle his hotel bill and carry
him considerable distance into the
unknown which he was resolved to
beard. and was resigned to lose
the remainder. 1t was a tenet of his
creed of fatalism that chance seldom
favored hill. when he had money in
his pockets; the tide of his affairs
must be at it's lowest ebb ere it turn.
ed. His policy then was obvious
childishly plain: he must fling to the
winds all that which he had
Now never was there a man who
played to lose who didn't win his
point Colonel O'Rourke's case can be
cited as no exception to this rule Ell
bow to elbow on one side with an art
less old lady from Terre Haute, who
risked her minimums with the Zero
cious jealousy of miser making an
unsecured loan, on the other with ar
intent little Austrian gambler absorb
ed in the workings of his system,
the adventurer scattered gold upor
the numbered and Illuminated grid
iron as unconcernedly as though hi
had been matching shilltngs, and saw
the coins gathered in by the greedy
rake as often as the little ivory bal
ceased to chatter on the wheel.
For the better part of an hour thi.
continued. And the little group o
sycophants which had gathered be
hind his chair to watch his play in
sensibly dissipated. A whisper ra1
through the ranks of the habitues tina
the luck of the mad Irishman had turn
ed; and forthwith he ceased to be al
object of interest. Only the littl,
Austrian, having risked the numbe
of stakes prescribed by his system TO
one evenings play, put away his note
book and pencil and. surrendering hi
place to another. fingered benin,
O'RoNYke's chair.
At length, inexpressibly bored an
too impatient to defer the inevitable
by niggardly wagers. O'Rourke ran
sacked his pockets and placed the pre-
ceeds-several hundred francs-I ar
as ignorant Of the amount as he wa
Indifferent to it-upon the red.
There tell lull, the croupier holi
ing the wheel to permit an unbake
cub Of Chicago millions 70 cover tn