Commoner's favourite haunt. There could be no better
time or place to approach him than seated at one of its tables laden with
rare wines and savoury dishes.

On reaching the well-known number of Hall & Pemberton's place, the editor
entered the unlocked door, passed with his friends along the soft-carpeted
hall, and ascended the stairs. Here the door was locked. A sudden pull of
the bell, and a pair of bright eyes peeped through a small grating in the
centre of the door revealed by the sliding of its panel.

The keen eyes glanced at the proffered card, the door flew open, and a
well-dressed mulatto invited them with cordial welcome to enter.

Passing along another hall, they were ushered into a palatial suite of
rooms furnished in princely state. The floors were covered with the
richest and softest carpets--so soft and yielding that the tramp of a
thousand feet could not make the faintest echo. The walls and ceilings
were frescoed by the brush of a great master, and hung with works of art
worth a king's ransom. Heavy curtains, in colours of exquisite taste,
masked each window, excluding all sound from within or without.

The rooms blazed with light from gorgeous chandeliers of trembling
crystals, shimmering and flashing from the ceilings like bouquets of
diamonds.

Negro servants, faultlessly dressed, attended the slightest want of every
guest with the quiet grace and courtesy of the lost splendours of the old
South.

The proprietor, with courtly manners, extended his hand:

"Welcome, gentlemen; you are my guests. The tables and the wines are at
your service without price. Eat, drink, and be merry--play or not, as you
please."

A smile lighted his dark eyes, but faded out near his mouth--cold and
rigid.

At the farther end of the last room hung the huge painting of a leopard,
so vivid and real its black and tawny colours, so furtive and wild its
restless eyes, it seemed alive and moving behind invisible bars.

Just under it, gorgeously set in its jewel-studded frame, stood the magic
green table on which men staked their gold and lost their souls.

The rooms were crowded with Congressmen, Government officials, officers of
the Army and Navy, clerks, contractors, paymasters, lobbyists, and
professional gamblers.

The centre of an admiring group was a Congressman who had during the last
session of the House broken the "bank" in a single night, winning more
than a hundred thousand dollars. He had lost it all an