VII


"I think we'll find most of the proper crowd down at the Empire," observed
Sansome as the two picked their way across the Plaza. "That is one of the
few old-fashioned, respectable gambling places left to us. The town is not
what it used to be in a sporting way. It was certainly wide open in the
good old days!"

The streets at night were ill lighted, except where a blaze of illumination
poured from the bigger saloons. The interims were dark, and the side
streets and alleys stygian. "None too safe, either," Sansome understated
the case. Many people were abroad, but Keith noticed that there seemed to
be no idlers; every one appeared to be going somewhere in particular. After
a short stroll they entered the Empire, which, Sansome explained, was the
most stylish and frequented gambling place in town, a sort of evening club
for the well-to-do and powerful. Keith looked over a very large room or
hall, at the lower end of which an alcove made a sort of raised stage with
footlights. Here sat a dozen "nigger minstrels" with banjos strumming, and
bawling away at top pressure. An elaborate rosewood bar ran down the whole
length at one side--an impressive polished bar, perhaps sixty feet long,
with a white-clad, immaculate barkeeper for every ten feet of it. Big
mirrors of French plate reflected the whole room, and on the shelf in front
of them glittered crystal glasses of all shapes and sizes, arranged in
pyramids and cubes. The whole of the main floor was carpeted heavily. Down
the centre were stationed two rows of gambling tables, where various games
could be played--faro, keeno, roulette, stud poker, dice. Beyond these