Page:Lynch Williams--The girl and the game.djvu/93

 were gambling booths. The college had to put a stop to all this later, but it was not in time to be of use to my great-great-greaty or his 'wicked associates.' He tried the gypsies, and they told him how to win. He bucked up against the red in the gambling booths and they showed him how to lose—after first letting him win enough to get him well hooked, in the usual way.

"Finally, to cut it short, David and two of his pals lost their collar buttons and their shirt studs and all the silver buttons on their funny long coats—though they had a great many coats and heaps of buttons, running up behind as well as down in front. They were cleaned out entirely. And that night they looked each other in the face like shipwrecked sailors and decided to do something about it. My ancestor knew it would never do for this to get to his father's ears. His father was of the English sort of father, very distant and arrogant, but very loving all the same. And the worst of it was, I should have mentioned, his father had entrusted him with some money, a contribution to the