Here at last was the new pleasure for which he had longed, the fresh violent excitement that alone could rouse his jaded nerves, the one thing that could amuse him.

However, the failure of his _coup_ had left him without chips; he was out of the game.

He decided that he would stop; more than half of his five hundred dollars was gone already.

He drank off a glass of soda, the dregs of one of the siphon bottles, and got up yawning, shivering a little and stretching his arms high above.

The other two played on steadily.