MD3PAD 421-423

[Toby G Levy]

        The dining room also contains gaming tables of every
description, including an E-O wheel which the Hyperarts alpha describes
as:

"Even Odds; a roulette (French: small wheel) wheel, a gambling game
based on opposing pairs, e.g. black/white, even/odd, in which players
bet on which red or black numbered compartment of a revolving wheel a
small ball (spun in the opposite direction) will come to rest within.
Bets are placed on a table marked to correspond with the compartments of
the wheel."

        Chapter 42 begins on page 422 with Wicks sermonizing on why
gambling is considered a sin: it challenges the Will of God. Wicks also
says that war could be considered a gambling event with entire fortunes
on the line.

        Returning to Mason and Dixon, we find them complaining about the
fact that there was much cheating going on at the gaming tables. They
lost twenty pounds gambling.

        Dixon suggests that they should take something worth twenty
pounds from the castle. He looks around and first chooses an etching,
but then decides it is too pornographic to sell.  Mason jokingly
suggests the bathtub in their room, but Dixon is excited by the idea of
taking the tub.

        Mason protests that the tub must weigh a half a ton, but Dixon
says that Emerson taught him secrets of leverage and suddenly he has the
tub standing on end.

Toby