anked by the frontman. He walked straight back to
the dice table and stood beside it, watching the play. It was an
oldstyle table built for six-faced dice, and operated on
percentage--most of the time. It was a money-maker, which was the only
reason Abie kept it. People liked these old-fashioned games. They were
part of the Martian tradition. A couple of local citizens and a dozen
tourists were crowded around it, and the diceman's flat emotionless
voice carried across the intermittent click and rattle of the dice
across the green cloth surface.

I dropped out of the blackjack game after dropping another five
munits, and headed slowly towards the dice table. One of the floormen
looked at me curiously since I didn't normally touch dice, but
whatever he thought he kept to himself. I joined the crowd, and
watched for awhile.

Redman was sitting in the game, betting at random. He played the
field, come and don't come, and occasionally number combinations. When
it came his turn at the dice he made two passes, a seven and a four
the hard way, let the pile build and crapped out on the next roll.
Then he lost the dice with a seven after an eight. There was nothing
unusual about it, except that after one run of the table I noticed
that he won more than he lost. He was pocketing most of his
winnings--but I was watching him close and keeping count. That was
enough for me. I got into the game, followed his lead, duplicating his
bets. And I won too.

People are sensitive. Pretty quick they began to see that Redman and I
were winning and started to follow our leads. I gave them a dirty look
and dropped out, and after four straight losses, Redman did likewise.

He went over to the roulette wheel and played straight red and black.
He won there too. And after awhile he went back to the dice table. I
cashed in. Two thousand was fair enough and there was no reason to
make myself unpopular. But I couldn't help staying to watch the fun. I
could feel it coming--a sense of something impending.

Redman's face was flushed a dull vermilion, his eyes glittered with
ruby glints, and his breath came faster. The dice had a grip on him
just like cards do on me. He was a gambler all right--one of the fool
kind that play it cozy until they're a little ahead and then plunge
overboard and drown.

"Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen," the diceman droned. "Eight is
the point." His rake swept over the board collecting a few munit
plaques on the wr