You see what it is! I sold the old house on California Street.

Well, I've gambled away that money in less than a year.

It seems that I'm a financial ruin now, but"-- and he began to laugh--"I live through it somehow.

The news didn't prevent me from getting drunk to-night." After young Haight was gone, Vandover went to bed, turning out the gas and drawing down the window half-way from the top.

The wine had made him sleepy; he was dropping away into a very grateful doze when a sudden shock, a violent leap of every nerve in his body, brought him up to a sitting posture, gasping for breath, his heart fluttering, his hands beating at the empty air.