funeral. The
minister and a few of the neighbors came in--my God, it was simply
awful. I was still a kid, only fifteen, you see, and I felt the
terrible lonesomeness of it.

"Well, mother had saved considerable money--twenty-six hundred dollars
in all. I sold our furniture and came to Chicago, and went to board
with some friends of the family. I worked more or less for two or
three years; but my money made me kind of 'flossy,' and whenever I 'd
feel like it, I 'd just throw up the job and quit.

"After a while I got so I did n't try to work. I fell in with a gang
of sports that used to hang around the pool-rooms, and pretty soon
'your little Willie' was losing his money right and left. The local
meeting came along, and I took to going out to the track. I was nearly
broke when one day a tout tried to 'get me down' on a 'good thing' he
had. I told him I would n't play it, but I afterwards shook him and
put twenty on it--I 'm a goat if it did n't win, and I pulled down a
thousand. I looked for the guy who gave me the tip, but I could n't
find him anywhere. I guess he fell dead with surprise himself--at
least I 've never seen him since.

"Now, about that time, I had to quit the family I was living with.
They broke up housekeeping and moved away, leaving me on a cold, cold
world. After that I did nothing but play the races. I followed them
from town to town--St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati, New
Orleans--winning a little now and then, but up against it most of the
time.

"I got the malaria down south, and I took a notion I 'd go to Hot
Springs. You ever been there? No? Well say, you talk about your
sportin' life--there is the onliest place to see it. Every kind of a
gamblin' game you ever heard of runnin' wide--and everybody goes
against 'em.

"I had heard that some of the games were crooked, and I thought I 'd be
foxy and leave them alone. I left my leather full of bills with the
clerk up in the hotel safe.

"A little more potato, please. Thanks, I am hungry, and that's no
dream.

"Well, as I was saying, one day at the bath I meets a young guy in the
cooling-room, and he springs a system to beat roulette, which figures
out a mortal cinch. I do n't remember the system now, but I recollect
we tried it ourselves on a private wheel, and it could n't lose. The
only trouble with it was that with luck against us we might get soaked
in doubling up before we win. But we made up our minds to begin it