But there has never been any trouble. The
police know that it is so far, no farther. Besides," he added with
a wink to me, "you know, Senator Danfield wouldn't like this pretty
little door even scratched. Come up, I think I hear DeLong's voice
up-stairs. You've heard of him, monsieur? It's said his luck has
changed. I'm anxious to find out."
Quickly he led the way up the handsome staircase and into a large,
lofty, richly furnished room. Everywhere there were thick, heavy
carpets on the floors, into which your feet sank with an air of
satisfying luxury.
The room into which we entered was indeed absolutely windowless. It
was a room built within the original room of the old house. Thus the
windows overlooking the street from the second floor in reality bore
no relation to it. For light it depended on a complete oval of lights
overhead so arranged as to be themselves invisible, but shining
through richly stained glass and conveying the illusion of a slightly
clouded noon-day. The absence of windows was made up for, as I learned
later, by a ventilating device so perfect that, although everyone was
smoking, a most fastidious person could scarcely have been offended by
the odor of tobacco.
Of course I did not notice all this at first. What I did notice,
however, was a faro-layout and a hazard-board, but as no one was
playing at either, my eye quickly traveled to a roulette-table which
stretched along the middle of the room. Some ten or a dozen men in
evening clothes were gathered watching with intent faces the spinning
wheel.
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