s he expressed it.

"Double them if you like," said West.

Rudd looked at him with a distrustful eye, and said nothing. The other
players were disposed to accede to the boy's vehement request, and after
a little discussion the matter was settled to his satisfaction. The game
was resumed at higher points.

Some onlookers had drawn round the table scenting excitement. Archie,
sitting with his back to the wall, was playing with headlong
recklessness. For a while he continued to lose, and then suddenly and
most unexpectedly he began to win. A most rash speculation resulted in
his favour, and from that moment it seemed that his luck had turned.
Once or twice he lost, but these occasions were far outbalanced by
several brilliant _coups_. The tide had turned at last in his favour.

He played as a man possessed, swiftly and feverishly. It seemed that he
and West were to divide the honours. For West's luck scarcely varied,
and Rudd continued to look at him askance.

For the greater part of an hour young Bathurst won with scarcely a
break, till the spectators began to chaff him upon his outrageous
success.

"You'd better stop," one man warned him. "She's a fickle jade, you know,
Bathurst. Take too much for granted, and she'll desert you."

But Bathurst did not even seem to hear. He played with lowered eyes and
twitching mouth, and his hands shook perceptibly. The gambler's lust was
upon him.

"He'll go on all night," murmured the onlookers.

But this prophecy was not to be fulfilled.

It was a very small thing that stemmed the racing current of the boy's
success--no more than a slight click audible only to a few, and the
tinkle of something falling--but in an instant, swift as a thunderbolt,
the wings of tragedy swept down upon the little party gathered about the
table.

Young Bathurst uttered a queer, half-choked exclamation, and dived
downwards. But the man next to him, an Englishman named Norton, dived
also, and it was he who, after a moment, righted himself with something
shining in his hand which he proceeded grimly to display to the whole
assembled company. It was a small, folding mirror--little more than a
toy, it looked--with a pin attached to its leathern back.

Deliberately Norton turned it over, examining it in such a way that
others might examine it too. Then, having concluded his investigation of
this very simple contrivance, he slapped it down upon the table with a
gesture of unutterable contempt.