Ellis was drinking whisky again, mixed with soda, his hand continually groping for the glass with a mechanical gesture; the Dummy was so excited he could not keep his cigar alight, and contented himself with chewing the end with an hysterical motion of his jaws.

The perspiration stood in beads on the back of Vandover's hands, running down in tiny rivulets between his fingers, his teeth were shut close together and he was breathing short through his nose, a fine trembling had seized upon his hands so that the chips in his palm rattled like castanets.

In the stale and murky atmosphere of the overheated room in the midst of the vast silence of the sleeping city they played on steadily.
Then they began to "plunge," agreeing to play a no limit game and raising the value of a red chip to ten dollars; at times they even played with the coins themselves when their chips were exhausted.
Vandover had lost all his ready money, and now for a long time had been gambling with the five hundred dollars he had that day drawn from the bank.

Ellis had practically put the Dummy out of the play, and now the game was between him and Vandover.

Ellis was banking, and at length offered to sell the bank to either one of them.