Over an Absinthe Bottle

William Chambers Morrow (1854-1923) was an American writer, famous for his short stories of horror and suspense.

"Over an Absinthe Bottle" is a peculiar horror story about a young man down and out in San Francisco who is slowly starving to death. Then he happens to meet a peculiar pale stranger who invites him to share a bottle of absinthe with him and then engages him in a terrifying game of dice, where the stakes rise with every throw....

The tale takes a very strange turn at the end.