High and low financiers, by Watson Washburn & Edmund S. DeLong.

Watson Washburn & Edmund S. DeLong (A); 9Dec59; R249837.

Sincerely, (Mrs.) JULIA M. DELONG.

Young DeLong was in one of my classes at the university, until he was expelled for that last mad prank of his.

" Left to my own devices I determined to do a little detective work on my own account, and not only did I succeed in finding an acquaintance who agreed to introduce us at the Vesper Club that night about nine o'clock, but I also learned that Percival DeLong was certain to be there that night, too.

Come up, I think I hear DeLong's voice up-stairs.

Leaning forward, almost oblivious to the rest, was Percival DeLong, a tall, lithe, handsome young man, whose boyish face ill comported with the marks of dissipation clearly outlined on it.

DeLong hesitated, as one who thought, "Seventeen has come out twicethe odds against its coming again are too great, even though the winnings would be fabulous, for a good stake."

DeLong, with a stiffed oath, leaned back and scanned the faces about the table.

" "You talk like a professor I had at the university," ejaculated DeLong contemptuously as Craig finished his disquisition on the practical fallibility of theoretically infallible systems.

Again DeLong carefully avoided the "17," as well as the black.

" "What?" asked DeLong eagerly.

It is not a game of chance for the bankah, it is exact, mathematicalc'est une question d'arithmétique seulement, n'est-ce pas, messieurs?" "Perhaps," admitted DeLong, "but it doesn't explain why I am losing to-night while everyone else is winning.

DeLong was too intent on the game to leave, even for refreshments.

DeLong's table was the centre of attraction, owing to the high play.

DeLong had taken a sort of grim pleasure in the fact that Kennedy, too, was losing.

I found that Craig had paused in his play at a moment when DeLong had staked a large sum that a number below "18" would turn upfor five plays the numbers had been between "18" and "36."

It had pointed at the tableand DeLong had lost again.

"By George, though," exclaimed DeLong, grasping his hand.

He affected not to have heard what DeLong said, but I could imagine what he was thinking, for I had heard that he had scant sympathy with anyone after he "went broke"another evidence of the camaraderie and good-fellowship that surrounded the game.

Two roulette-tables were now going full blast, the larger crowd still about DeLong's.

The pale white face of DeLong among them was like a spectre, as he stood staring blankly about and still insanely twisting the roulette wheel before him.

"DeLong," he said, "I'm not going to talk to you like your old professor at the university, nor like your recent friend, the Frenchman with a system.

"Wh-what does it mean?" asked DeLong blankly.

The whole thing is crooked from start to finishthe men, the machinesthe" "That machine could be made to beat me by turning up a run of '17' any number of times, or red or black, or odd or even, over '18' or under '18,' or anything?" "Anything, DeLong."