Terrible as was the furor which this tragedy aroused, it subsided almost as soon as the ripples of the water which closed over the drowning man, and the players returned to their games as if nothing had happened.

In the months which they had spent together the quack had indoctrinated David into all the best-known secrets of this vice, and besides this, had familiarized him with the use of a certain “hold out” of his own invention, with which he had achieved incredible results and which was new to the fraternity of the river.  Having watched the players for a long time, David convinced himself that he could employ this trick successfully, and took his place at the table.

The young man’s nerves were tested by the circumstances in which he found himself, if nerves are tested to tension anywhere, for he faced the most experienced masters of the craft who could be found anywhere in the world, and staked not only his little fortune, but his existence, for, as he had just seen, these determined and reckless men thought no more of taking life than of taking money.

David felt his way along with a coolness that astonished himself, and his very first experiment with the delicate apparatus concealed in his sleeve was such a brilliant triumph that he saw it was undetected.  With a strengthened confidence, he made the stakes larger and larger, and his winnings increased so rapidly as to make him the center of attention.  The crowd swarmed round the table.  The spectators became breathless.  The gamblers were first astonished, then bewildered.  As their nerve failed them, David’s assurance increased, and when day broke ten thousand dollars lay upon the table before him as the result of his skilful and desperate efforts.

Their loss astonished and enraged the gamblers to such a degree that with a preconcerted signal they sprang at their opponent, determined to regain their money by violence.  The move was not unexpected, nor was he unprepared.  He fought as he had played, and so won the sympathies of the bystanders that in an instant there was a general melee in which he was helped to escape with the winnings.

He was the hero of the trip, and a career had opened before him.  Satellites began to circle around him and to solicit his friendship and patronage.

When he disembarked at New Orleans he had already entered into a partnership with one of the most notable members of the gambling fraternity, and purchased an interest in one of those “palaces” where games of chance attracted and destroyed their thousands.

The newspapers made the gay throngs of that gayest of all cities familiar with the incidents of David’s advent.  He and Pepeeta became the talk of the town.  They rented a fashionable house, and swung out into the current of the mad life of the metropolis of the South.