Valenti's gestures.

Nino rapped on the green baize with his knuckles. "Chips," he said.

The pit boss took a pad from his pocket and filled out a slip and put it in front of Nino

with a small fountain pen. "Here you are, Mr. Valenti," he said. "The usual five thousand

to start." Nino scrawled his signature on the bottom of the slip and the pit boss put it in

his pocket. He nodded to the dealer.

The dealer with incredibly deft fingers took stacks of black and gold one-hundred-

dollar chips from the built-in racks before him. In not more than five seconds Nino had

five even stacks of one-hundred-dollar chips before him, each stack had ten chips.

There were six squares a little larger than playing card, shapes etched in white on the

green baize, each square placed to correspond to where a player would sit. Now Nino

was placing bets on three of these squares, single chips, and so playing three hands

each for a hundred dollars. He refused to take a hit on all three hands because the

dealer had a six up, a bust card, and the dealer did bust. Nino raked in his chips and

turned to Johnny Fontane. "That's how to start the night, huh, Johnny?"

Johnny smiled. It was unusual for a gambler like Nino to have to sign a chit while

gambling. A word was usually good enough for the high rollers. Maybe they were afraid

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Nino wouldn't remember his take-out because of his drinking. They didn't know that

Nino remembered everything.

186

Nino kept winning and after the third round lifted a finger at the cocktail waitress. She

went to the bar at the end of the room and brought him his usual rye in a water glass.

Nino took the drink, switched it to his other hand so he could put an arm around the

waitress. "Sit with me, honey, play a few hands; bring me luck."

The cocktail waitress was a very beautiful girl, but Johnny could see she was all cold

hustle, no real personality, though she worked at it. She was giving Nino a big smile but

her tongue was hanging out for one of those black and gold chips. What the hell,

Johnny thought, why shouldn't she get some of it? He just regretted that Nino wasn't

getting something better for his money.

Nino let the waitress play his hands for a few rounds and then gave her one of the

chips and a pat on the behind to send her away from the table. Johnny motioned to her

to bring him a drink. She did so but she did it as if she were playing the most dramatic

moment in the most dramatic movie ever made. She turned all her charm on the great

Johnny Fontane. She made her eyes sparkle with invitation, her walk was the sexiest

walk ever walked, her mouth was very slightly parted as if she were ready to bite the

nearest object of her obvious passion. She resembled nothing so much as a female

animal in heat, but it was a deliberate act. Johnny Fontane thought, oh, Christ, one of

them. It was the most popular approach of women who wanted to take him to bed. It

only worked when he was very drunk and he wasn't drunk now. He gave the girl one of

his famous grins and said, "Thank you, honey." The girl looked at him and parted her

lips in a thank-you smile, her eyes went all smoky, her body tensed with the torso

leaning slightly back from the long tapering legs in their mesh stockings. An enormous

tension seemed to be building up in her body, her breasts seemed to grow fuller and

swell burstingly against her thin scantily cut blouse. Then her whole body gave a slight

quiver that almost let off a sexual twang. The whole impression was one of a woman

having an orgasm simply because Johnny Fontane had smiled at her and said, "Thank

you, honey." It was very well done. It was done better than Johnny had ever seen it

done before. But by now he knew it was fake. And the odds were always good that the

broads who did it were a lousy lay.

He watched her go back to her chair and nursed his drink slowly. He didn't want to

see that little trick again. He wasn't in the mood for it tonight.

It was an hour before Nino Valenti began to go. He started leaning first, wavered back,

and then plunged off the chair straight to the floor. But the pit boss and the relief dealer

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187

had been alerted by the first weave and caught him before he hit the ground. They lifted

him and carried him through the parted drapes that led to the bedroom of the suite.

Johnny kept watching as the cocktail waitress helped the other two men undress Nino

and shove him under the bed covers. The pit boss was counting Nino's chips and

making a note on his pad of chits, then guarding the table with its dealer's chips. Johnny

said to him, "How long has that been going on?"

The pit boss shrugged. "He went early tonight. The first time we got the house doc

and he fixed Mr. Valenti up with something and gave him some sort of lecture. Then

Nino told us that we shouldn't call the doc when that happened, just put him to bed and

he'd be OK in the morning. So that's what we do. He's pretty lucky, he was a winner

again tonight, almost three grand."

Johnny Fontane said, "Well, let's get the house doc up here tonight. OK? Page the

casino floor if you have to."