ed-faced youth with a
billy-cock hat shoved back upon his bullet head--a youth in galluses and
soiled shirt and belled pantaloons, who, standing upon a box for
elevation, was exhorting at the top of his lungs.

"Whoo-oop! This way, this way! Everybody this way! Come on, you
rondo-coolo sports! Give us a bet! A bet! Rondo coolo-oh! Rondo coolo-oh!
Here's your easy money! Down with your soap! Let her roll! Rondo
coolo-oh!"

"It's a great game, suh," the Colonel flung back over his shoulder.

We pushed forward, to the front. The center for the crowd was a table not
unlike a small billiard table or, saving the absence of pins, a tivoli
table such as enjoyed by children. But across one end there were several
holes, into which balls, ten or a dozen, resembling miniature billiard
balls, might roll.

The balls had been banked, in customary pyramid shape for a break as in
pool, at the opposite end; and just as we arrived they had been propelled
all forward, scattering, by a short cue rapidly swept across their base.

"Rondo coolo, suh," the Colonel was explaining, "as you see, is an
improvement on the old rondo, foh red-blooded people. You may place your
bets in various ways, on the general run, or the odd or the even; and as
the bank relies, suh, only on percentage, the popular game is strictly
square. There is no chance foh a brace in rondo coolo. Shall we take a
turn, foh luck?"

The crowd was craning and eyeing the gyrating balls expectantly. A part of
the balls entered the pockets; the remainder came to rest.

"Rondo," announced the man with the short cue, amidst excited ejaculations
from winners and losers. And according to a system which I failed to
grasp, except that it comprised the number of balls pocketed, he deftly
distributed from one collection of checks and coins to another, quickly
absorbed by greedy hands.

"She rolls again. Make your bets, ladies and gents," he intoned. "It's
rondo coolo--simple rondo coolo." And he reassembled the balls.

"I prefer not to play, sir," I responded to the heavily breathing
Colonel. "I am new here and I cannot afford to lose until I am better
established."

"Never yet seen a man who couldn't afford to win, though," Bill growled.
"Easy pickin', too. But come on, then. We'll give you a straight steer
some'rs else."

So we left the crowd--containing indeed women as well as men--to their
insensate fervor over a childish game under the stimulation of the
raucous, sweating