The Holbrook news., 1922-08-25

RespectabIe-Looking People in the
 Room.
 He, too, looked them over closely, but after a glance at the card drew aside to let them pass.
 Through a door near the head of the stairs they moved into a large room. evidently made from several smaller ones with the partitions torn Gown and the ceilings pillared at intervals.
 Clay had read about the magnifi- cence of Canfield's in the old days and he was surprised that one so fas- tidious as Bromfield should patronize a place so dingy and so rough as this At the end of one room was a marble mantelpiece above which there was a defaced, gilt-frame mirror. The chan deliers, the chairs, the wallpaper, all suggested the same note of One-time opulence worn to shabbiness.
 A game of KlOndike was going There were two roulette wheels, faro table. and one circle of poker players.
 Tho cold eyes of a sleek, slippery man sliding cards out of a faro-box looked at the westerner curiously. Among the suckers who came to this den of thieves to be robbed were none of Clay's stamp. Lindsay watched the white, dexterous hands of the dealer with an honest distaste. All along the border from Juarez to Calexico he had seen just such soft, skilled fingers f1eecing those who toiled. He knew the bloodless. impassive fa"n of the professional gambler as well as he knew the rnxiOus, reckless ones of his victims. His knowledge had told him little good of this breed of parasites who preyed upon a credulous public.
 The traffic of this room was crooked business by day as we'll as by night. A partition ran across the rear of the back parlor which showed no opening but two small holes with narrow shelves at the bottom. Back of that was the paraphernalia of the pool room. another device to separate cus- toners from their money by playing the ponies"
 AS Clay looked around 1t struck him that the personnel of this gambling den's patrons was singularly depress- ing one. All old, there were not dozen respectable-looking people in the room. Most of those present were derelicts of life, the failures of great city washed up by the tide Some were pallid. haggard wretches clinging to the vestiges of a prosperity that had once been theirs. Others were hard-faced ruffians from the under world. Not few bore the marks of the drug victim. All of those playing had manner of furtive suspicion. They knew that If they risked their money the house would rob them. Yet they played.
 Bromfield bought a small stack of chips at the roulette table.
 "WOn't you take a whirl at the wheel?" he asked Lindsay.
 Thanks. no. I believe not" his guest answered.
 AhO "CotCihCi WdS ut ulSRuSlcu at his hosts lack of discrimination. 'fDoes he think Pm a soft mark too?" he wondered. If this is what he calls high life I've had more than enough already"
 His disgust was shared by the club man. Bromfield had never been in such dive before. His gambling had been done in gilded luxury. While he touched shoulders with this motley crew his nostrils twitched with fas- tidious iisdain. He played, but his interest was not In the wheel. Du- rand had promised that there would be women and that one of them should be bri5ed to make claim upon Clay at the proper moment He had an un- happy feeling that the gang politician had thrown him down in this. If SO, vhSt did that mean? Had Durand