a word. The young man
took up the box, and for the first time seemed to hesitate; it could be
seen that he had bitten his lip until it bled. "After you," he muttered
at last, withdrawing his hand. He shrank from throwing his last throw.

"It is your turn," the other replied impassively, "but as you will." He
shook the box, brought it down sharply on the table and raised it. "The
Duke!" he said with an oath--he had thrown the highest possible. "Twelve
is the game."

With a shiver the lad--he was little more than a lad, though in his
heart, perhaps, the greatest gambler present--dashed down his box. He
raised it. "The King!" he cried; "long life to him!" He had also thrown
twelve. His cheek flushed a rosy red, and with a player's superstitious
belief in his luck he regarded the check given to his opponent in the
light of a presage of victory. They threw again, and he won by two
points--nine to seven. Hurrah!

"King or Duke," the tall man answered, restraining by a look the
interruption which more than one of the bystanders seemed about to
offer, "the money is yours; take it."

"Let it lie," the young man answered joyously. His eyes sparkled. When
the other had pushed an equal amount into the middle of the table, he
threw again, and with confidence.

Alas! his throw was a deuce and an ace. The elder player threw four and
two. He swept up the pile. "Better late than never," he said. And
leaning back he looked about him with a grin of satisfaction.

The young man rose. The words which had betrayed that he was not of the
Duke's faction, had cost him the sympathy the spectators had before felt
for him; and no one spoke. It was something that they kept silence, that
they did not interfere with him. His face, pale in the light of the
candles which burned beside him, was a picture of despair. Suddenly, as
if he bethought him of something, he sat down again, and with a shaking
hand took from his neck a slender gold chain with a pendant ornament.
"Will you stake against this?" he murmured with dry lips.

"Against that, or your sword, or your body, or anything but your soul!"
the other answered with a reckless laugh. He took up the chain and
examined it. "I will set you thirty crowns against it!" he said.

They threw and the young man lost.

"I will stake ten crowns against your sword if you like," the victor
continued, eyeing the curiously chased pommel.

"No," the young man replied, stung by something in the elder's ton