now at an exhibition of what is probably the
worst, and therefore the most dangerous, human vice," Dave replied.
"Bad as drunkenness is, gambling is worse."

"What is at the bottom of the gambling mania?" Dan asked thoughtfully.

"Greed," Dave responded promptly. "The desire to possess property, and
to acquire it without working for it."

"Some of these poor men and women look as if they were working hard
indeed," muttered Dan, in almost a tone of sympathy.

"They are not working so much as suffering," Dave rejoined. "Study
their faces, Danny boy. Can't you see greed sticking out all over
these countenances? Look at the hectic flush in most of the faces.
And--look at that man!"

A short, stout man sprang up from a table, his face ghastly pale and
distorted as though with terror. His eyes were wild and staring. He
chattered incoherently as he hastened away with tottering steps. Then
his hands gripped his hair, as though about to tear it from his head.

A few of the players in this international congress of greed glanced
at the unfortunate man, who probably had just beggared himself,
shrugged their shoulders, and turned their fascinated eyes back to the
gambling table.

One woman, young and charming, reached up to her throat, unfastening
and tossing on the table a costly diamond necklace and pendant.

"Now," she laughed hysterically, "I may go on playing for another
hour."

The Casino's representative in charge at that table smiled and shook
his head.

"We accept only money, madame," he said, with a grave bow.

"But I have no more money--with me," flashed back the young woman, her
cheeks burning feverishly.

"I regret, madame," insisted the Casino's man. Then an attendant, at
a barely perceptible sign from the _croupier_, as the man in charge of
the table is called, stepped up behind the young woman, bent over her
and murmured:

"If you care to leave the table for a few minutes, madame, there are
those close at hand who will advance you money on your necklace."

The young woman pouted at first. In another instant there was a
suppressed shout at the table. A player had just won four thousand
francs.

"I must have money!" cried the young woman, springing from her chair.
"This is destined to be my lucky night, and I must have money!"

As though he had been waiting for his prey, the attendant was quickly
by the woman's side. Bowing, he offered his arm. The man, attendant
though he was, was garbed in eveni