Odaan got up and made a great, sweeping gesture, a gesture of defeat. He stumbled away through the crowd.
Dori stood looking at me with tragic eyes, and I looked up into her white, child-like face. I knew then that I loved Dori, that I never would love another woman.
Britt sat silent, staring into the flickering fire.
"Mrs. Britt ... has passed on since then?" suggested Peache sympathetically.
Britt tapped the ash from the tip of his half-smoked cigar.
"Dori?" he said. "Oh, no. As far as I know, Dori's still alive. She ran away with Odaan the next day."
"With Odaan?" gasped Peache.
"Yes. She hated me, as she said. And I had been willing to gamble her, while Odaan had bet everything he owned for her. At that time there was a law that no woman could leave Mars—because of the shortage of women here, you know—and he had to get a job operating a towmotor at Marsport to stay on the planet with her. Of course I warned all my friends against gambling with him, since he had Dori. When the law was repealed, they returned to Earth, and I understand several children came of the union."
"But," protested Peache, "if Dori was in love with Odaan, why would she control the dice to lose the throw for him and win everything for you? I just don't understand."