And so indeed it had! Within a few short hours he had staked his entire fortune and lost it. It had gone as easily and as quickly as it had come.
"I guess that is about all," he said, pushing himself wearily back from the table at which he had just parted with the title to his desolated home.
"Shall I stake you, Davy?" asked one of his friends, touched by the pathos of the haggard face and hopeless voice.
"No," he answered, rising. "I have played enough. I am going away. Good-bye, boys."
Without another word, he left them and passed out of the door.
"Good-bye," they cried, as he vanished, scarcely raising their eyes from the tables.
Even in a crowd like that there will generally be found some heart which still retains its tenderness. The young man who had offered to stake him, followed the ruined gambler into the street.
"Where are you going, old man?" he said kindly, slipping his hand through David's arm.
"I don't know," he answered absently.
"Are you dead broke, Davy?"