my often passed the
whole night over their cards, and as Vandover came more and more under
Ellis' influence--succumbing to it as weakly as he had succumbed to the
influence of Charlie Geary--he began to join these parties. They played
Van John at five dollars a corner. Vandover won as often as he lost, but
the habit of cards grew upon him steadily.

Toward eleven o'clock the evening of the day upon which he had drawn his
five hundred, Vandover went around to the Imperial looking for his two
friends. He found Ellis drinking whisky all alone in one of the little
rooms, as was his custom; fifteen minutes later the Dummy and Flossie
joined them. Flossie had grown stouter since Vandover had first known
her, nearly ten years ago. She had a double chin, and puffy, discoloured
pockets had come under her eyes. Now her hair was dyed, her cheeks and
lips rouged, and her former air of health and good spirits gone. She
never laughed. She had smoked so many cigarettes that now her voice
hardly rose above a whisper. At one time she had been accustomed to
boast that she never drank, and it had been one of her peculiarities for
which she was well known. But on this occasion she joined Ellis in his
whisky. She had long since departed from her old-time rule of
temperance, and nowadays drank nothing else but whisky. She had even
become well known for the quantity of whisky she could drink.

For half an hour the four sat around the little table, talking about the
new, enormous Sutro Baths that were building at that time. After a while
Flossie left them, and the Dummy began to imitate the motions of some
one dealing cards, looking at the same time inquiringly into their
faces.

"How about that, Bandy?" asked Vandover. "Shall we have a game
to-night?"

The man of few words merely nodded his head and drank off the rest of
his whisky at a swallow. They all went up to Vandover's room. Vandover
got out the cards, the celluloid chips, and a fresh box of cigars. The
Dummy held up two fingers of his left hand, shutting them together
afterward with his right and making a hissing noise between his teeth.
He raised his eyebrows at Vandover. Vandover understood, and, ringing
for a bell-boy, ordered up three bottles of soda in siphon bottles.

The game was _vingt et un_, or, as they called it, Van John. They cut
for banker. Ellis turned the first ace, and Vandover bought the bank
from him. For the first hour they were very jolly, laughing and talkin