“Now, my boy, let us get to business. You have fallen among thieves, and have been plucked, like the unsuspecting, foolish pigeon that you are. I don’t want to know your past history; life is too short, but I do want a hand in your future.
“You are the scion of aristocratic stock. Your ancestors before you were worshippers at the shrine of beauty, but it was the beauty of purity and virtue. You have been dragging your family pride down into the dirt, and offering up your young soul upon an altar which a true son of the Old Dominion should loathe. You have squandered your money trying to beat a game that’s a ‘dead-open-and-shut’ against you. You are listening to one who knows whereof he speaks, I assure you, my boy.
“Not satisfied with what you had already done, which after all is easily remedied, you were about to stain your family name and record with a crime that nothing on earth could ever wipe out. You were about to kill—a fool, Gordon, who may yet be made a wise man.
“I once knew a boy who played the fool—much as you have done—and who is still expiating his folly. He might eventually have done as you were about to do, only he happened to be compelled to—well, he didn’t shoot himself, that’s one thing to his credit, although his family, and not himself, was perhaps the gainer by it, or will be sometime, if the truth is ever known. He couldn’t avoid the other—there was nothing about that of which he had cause to be ashamed, although the world, that knows not the circumstances, thinks differently.
“Now, Gordon, I’m going to stake you. Don’t say no—it is a loan if you please, or anything you choose to call it. Take this, and get out of this hell-hole of a town as quick as the Lord will let you.”
The boy stood for a moment with the tears streaming down his cheeks, and then hesitatingly took the proffered bag of dust.
“And you will really let me pay it back to you, sir, when I am able?”
“I certainly will, if we ever meet again,” replied the man. “As I have already told you, my boy, I know your breed; it is not the kind that likes to remain under obligations to one who is an entire stranger. But, after all, your honorable intention clears the obligation.
“And, Gordon, here’s your pistol. I think it will be safer in your hands than it was a short time ago. And now I am going to give you a few parting words of advice.
“In the first place, young fellow, don’t gamble. If your blood is too red to heed this admonition, learn to play poker. It’s a scientific game and a square one, usually—always so among gentlemen. Never bet against another man’s game, nor play against a percentage. Gambling games of that kind are like the play of life, the percentage is in favor of the dealer, and it fetches you sooner or later.