There was a man who lived only for gambling, though he was the son of a preacher. But the time came when he stopped gambling entirely and didn't go out at night and never went near his old haunt, which was a community hall where the boys gathered for a good time. At weekends they sometimes stayed there all night.
An old man asked the gambler what had happened to make him change his ways so completely and this is the story he finally told.
He was walking home from a night of gambling and drinking, so drunk he could scarcely stagger. A well dressed man came towards him down the road and when they stood face to face the man challenged the gambler to a game of cards, the sky's the limit. The gambler said at once, "Where shall we play?" The stranger answered, "Right here and now." The gambler brought out his pack of cards and his money and they squatted in the road way to play. The gambler lost heavily and when most of his money was gone he said he had better go home. The stranger laid a hand on his arm and said, "Not so fast. You and I have not finished our game." The stranger's touch burned the arm, and the gambler, suddenly sober, said his money was gone and he was not going to stay. When he straightened up the stranger had vanished. His cards were in his pocket and the stranger's winnings were heaped by the side of the road.
The gambler was alone. Yet as he took off for home he felt someone was following him. The footsteps behind him grew louder and he broke into a run. His back felt cold and a hissing noise was growing in his head and he seemed to hear chains rattling. He tried to remember some of his father's prayers. Then he thought of his mother, and of his brother who would be safe asleep in the room their home. With his pursuer almost at his back he reached the house, flung open the door and took the stairs two steps at a time, pausing at the top only to pull out his deck of cards and throw it down the stairs. He could hear the cards land and scatter.
When he got to his bed he woke his brother and told him what had happened. It was already daybreak and his brother waited while he changed into work clothes. As they started downstairs together, the gambler found that the cards he had scattered were neatly stacked on the top landing. He picked them up, and took them downstairs, and in front of his father and mother and brother he threw them into the kitchen stove.
Later he and his brother went to the place where the game had been played. A pile of wood chips was there where the stranger's winnings had been piled up were still there. Beside it, in another pile, was the money he had lost to the stranger.