River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1912-03-28
CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER II.
After that bitter disappointment his
interest in his personal appearance
dwindled to the negligible. In black
temper with himself (whom alone he
blamed for the deception to which
he had fallen too facile victim) he
searched blindly for fresh tie, found
it somehow, and knotted it round his
collar in the most haphaZard fashion
imaginable Then he shrugged 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
a table all to himself, and dined in soil
tary grandeur, COMFORTING himself
openly as 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 i'm
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 or To-
morrow.
To a man whose trade was lighting,
the world just then was a 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 a gesture which splend1dly
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 a 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
er or later, everybody who is anybody
within the 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 a reserve fund suffi-
cient to settle his hotel bill and carry
him a 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 hi1. when he had money in
his pockets; the tide of his affairs
must be at its lowest ebb ere it turn
ed. His policy then was obvious
childishlJ 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 FL
bow to elbow on one side with an art
less old lady from Terre Haute, who
risked her minimums with the fero-
cious jealousy of q miser making an
unsecured loan. on the other with an
intent little Austrian gambler absorb
ed in the workings of his System, .
the adventurer scattered gold upon
the numbered and Illuminated grid.
iron as unconcernedly as though he
had been matching shillings. and saw
the coins gathered in by the greedy
rake as often as the little ivory ball
ceased to chatter on the wheel.
For the better part of an hour this
continued. And the little group OF
sycophants which had gathered he.
hind his chair to watch his plav in.
sensibly dissipated. whisper ran
through the ranks of the habitues thar
the luck of the mad Irishman had turn.
ed; and forthwith he ceased to be an
object of interest. Only the little
Austrian, having risked the number
of stakes prescribed by his system for
one evenings play, put away his note
book and pencil and, surrendering his
place to another. fingered behind
ORourke's chair.
At length, inexpressibly bored and
too impatient to defer the inevitable
by niggardly wagers. O'Rourke ran
sacked his pockets and placed the pro-
ceeds-several hundred francs-I am
as ignorant of the amount as he was
indifferent to it-upon the red.
There fell lull. the croupier hold
ing the wheel to permit an unbaked
cub of Chicago millions to cover the
cloth with stakes too numerous for
his half-developed intelligence to keep
count of; and the adventurer shifted
IN his seat, reviewing the assemblage.
For some moments. through the mys-
terious working of that sixth sense
which men are pleased vaguely to de-
nominate intuition. he had been SUBJ
consciously aware of being the object
OF some persons fixed regard, that
somebody was not only watching, but
weighing him. He sought the source
of this sensation and, for little time
sought it unsuccessfully. Annoyed.
he persisted He heard the croupiers
mechanical Rein ne va plus" follow.
ed by the whirring of the wheel. but