"I'll make it thirty--for a beginning." There was a momentary silence, for the lad had staked heavily and lost of late, but one or two more bets were made.

Then the cards were turned up, and the lad smiled fatuously as he took up his winnings.
"Now I'll let you see," he said.

"This time we'll make it fifty." He won twice more in succession, and the men closed in about the table, while, for the dealer knew when to strike, the glasses went around again, and in the growing interest nobody quite noticed who paid for the refreshment.

Then, while the dollars began to trickle in, the lad flung a bill for a hundred down.
"Go on," he said, a trifle huskily.

"To-night you can't beat me!" Once more he won, and just then two men came quietly into the room.
One of them signed to the hotel keeper.
"What's going on?
The boys seem kind of keen," he said.
The other man laughed a little.