"Yes, Lammis," the sick man went on. "Castlegarry was my father's place,
but my mother left me Lammis. When I got control of it, and of the
securities she left, I felt my oats, as they say; and I wasn't long in
making a show of courage, not to say rashness, in following my leader.
He gave me luck for a time, indeed so great that I could even breed
horses of my own. But the luck went against him at last, and then, of
course, against me; and I began to feel that suction which, as it draws
the cash out of your pocket, the credit out of your bank, seems to draw
also the whole internal economy out of your body--a ghastly, empty,
collapsing thing."

Mrs. Tynan gave a great sigh. She had once put two hundred dollars in
a mine--on paper--and it ended in a lawsuit; and on the verdict in the
lawsuit depended the two hundred dollars and more. When she read a fatal
telegram to her saying that all was lost, she had had that empty,
collapsing feeling.

Pausing for a moment, in which he sipped some milk, Crozier then
continued: "At last my leader died, and the see-saw of fortune began for
me; and a good deal of my sound timber was sawed into logs and made into
lumber to build some one else's fortune. When things were balancing
pretty easily, I married. It wasn't a sordid business to restore my
fortunes--I'll say that for myself; but it wasn't the thing to do,
for I wasn't secure in my position. I might go on the rocks; but was
there ever a gambler who didn't believe that he'd pull it off in a big
way next time, and that the turn of the wheel against him was only to
tame his spirit? Was there ever a gambler or sportsman of my class who
didn't talk about the 'law of chances,' on the basis that if red, as it
were, came up three times, black stood a fair chance of coming up the