CAP ROCHE FALLS A VICTIM TO HOP.
Cap Roche now turned his attention to the table at which Hop was
sitting.
"So the heathen is showing you something with the cards, eh, boys?" he
said, smilingly.
"That's right, Cap," answered one of them. "An' he's mighty slick, too."
"He is, eh? Well, I'd like to see what he can do."
"Me showee velly nicee lillee tlick," spoke up Hop, nodding pleasantly.
The Chinaman was quite sure that Young Wild West suspected that the man
was not altogether right, for he was a keen observer and an attentive
listener.
That made him decide to make a victim of him, if he could.
Hop had thought out a brand new trick with a deck of cards, and he was
all fixed to work it on somebody.
He was pleased to find that he had a victim.
Shuffling the pack well, he spread them out like a fan and held the
cards so that some of the faces could be seen by Roche.
"You see um jack of hearts?" he asked.
"Yes," was the reply.
"Allee light; you allee samee lemember um jack of hearts."
Then he gave the cards another shuffle, and in doing it one of them
slipped up his sleeve unobserved by any one.
There was really nothing wonderful about this, since there was a thin
piece of elastic attached to the card, and the moment it was released it
left the pack.
As might be supposed, it was the jack of hearts.
But Hop had another jack of hearts, as he needed it to carry out the
trick.
He kept this one concealed in his hand and passed the deck to Roche,
saying:
"You pickee outee um jack of hearts and me allee samee showee how me
makee fly away."
The man quickly looked over the cards and found that the jack of hearts
was not among them.
"I reckon you took it when no one was looking," he said, with a smile.
"That is not much of a trick; I could do that myself."
"Me no takee," declared the Celestial, putting on a look of surprise.
"Maybe allee samee dlop on um floor."
He got up from his chair, and then, dropping upon his hands and knees,
began looking around on the floor under the table.
While doing this he cleverly slipped the card he had in his hand into
the boot-top of Roche.
Then, before he got up, he pulled the card that had the elastic attached
to it from his sleeve and held it so the elastic was concealed.
"Here um card," he said, as he showed it to every one. "Me puttee in um
pack, so be."
Roche was watching him closely, for he knew that the Chinaman was up to
something, and he was certain that the card went into the pack.
But it did not.
It slipped up Hop sleeve the same as it had done the first time.
"Now you findee um jack of hearts," he said, smilingly.
Roche nodded and proceeded to look for it.
"It isn't here," he said, looking surprised.
"You wantee tly foolee poor Chinee," Hop declared, putting on an injured
look. "You takee um card and puttee in your boot, so be."
"What's that?" cried Roche, half angrily. "Do you mean to say that I
stole the card from the pack?"
"Me allee samee bettee ten dollee you gottee um card somewhere, so be!"
was the quick retort.
"You will, eh? All right. I'm a betting man, I am. It don't make any
difference who I bet with, either. I'll bet you ten dollars that I
haven't got the card on me. If one has got it you're the one, for you
are doing the trick."
Hop held up both hands and threw open his coat, to show that he did not
have it.
Then he laid ten dollars on the table.
"Boys," said Roche, looking at those around him, "I don't know just what
kind of a game I am up against; but I do know that I haven't got that
card anywhere on my person. I feel so sure of it that I'll bet a hundred
dollars instead of ten!"
"Allee light."
As quick as a wink Hop's hand went into his pocket and out came a roll
of bills.
He quickly counted out ninety dollars more and put it on the table.
Roche immediately covered it, and then, rising to his feet, he moved
away from the table and called out:
"Hoker, come here and search me. If you find the jack of hearts anywhere
on me the Chinaman wins. If you don't find it I win."
"Lat light," said Hop, nodding to the boss of the place.
Hoker came forward and proceeded to go through the man's pockets.
He did not find the card in any of the pockets, so he went on down and
tried the boot-tops.
Then it was that he pulled out a card from one of them.
"Here she is, Cap!" he exclaimed, as he arose and held out the card so
all could see it. "Here's ther jack of hearts!"
"Tricked, by thunder!" exclaimed Roche, as Hop smiled and put the money
in his pocket.
"Mighty clever, I should say," ventured Sedgwick. "Cap, yer shouldn't
have bet."
"I couldn't help it," was the reply. "But I know how it was done. He put
the card in my bootleg when he was looking around under the table."
"No; that couldn't be," declared the saloon keeper. "He put ther card in
ther pack after that. An' I'll swear that he wasn't near enough ter put
it on you after that, even if he had it in his hand."
"Well, that is true, come to think of it. But he got it there, somehow."
Roche took the card and looked it over.
Then he picked up the pack and compared the backs of the cards with the
one he held in his hand.
"I lose the hundred, that's all," he exclaimed. "But I'll bet another
hundred he can't work that trick again!"
Hop smiled.
"You allee samee watched too muchee," he said.
"You bet I would watch."
The cards were laid on the table by him, and Hop picked them up in an
offhanded way.
"Here um nicee lillee tlick," he said, as he ran the cards up his arm in
a long string. "Evelybody no do lat, so be."
Then he let them go back again, and in doing so two or three of them
dropped to the floor.
Hop was on his knees gathering them up in a twinkling.
Then it was that he slipped a card in the bootleg of Roche again.
But he was not caught doing it, however.
He got the cards that had dropped and did the trick over again, this
time not losing any of them when they ran back to his hand.
Then he suddenly showed the jack of hearts again.
"Do you want to try the other trick again?" the man front Silver Bend
asked.
"You no givee poor Chinee um showee to play um tlick, so be," answered
Hop.
"What kind of a show do you want? There you are with the jack of hearts
in your hand. Now I'll bet you that you can't get it into my bootleg
again!"
He moved back from the table, so he would be entirely clear from the
Chinaman, as he said this.
Hop let all hands have a look at the jack of hearts, and then he allowed
it to flip up his sleeve.
He shuffled the pack, laid it on the table and brought his fist down
upon it with considerable force.
"Lere um go!" he exclaimed. "Me bettee you hundled dollee you gottee um
jack of hearts in you bootleg, so be!"
"What!" cried Roche, as he looked down at his feet. "Do you mean that,
you heathen?"
"Me allee samee meanee," was the reply. "Me wantee givee you chancee to
gittee square, so be."
The villain had a hundred dollars out in a hurry.
"There you are!" he exclaimed. "Cover that!"
"Me covee allee samee pletty quickee, so be."
Hop did cover it, too; and then, folding his arms, he looked at Roche
and remained silent for a moment.
"Search me, somebody," said the latter, looking around. "Here, Sam! He
bet that the jack of hearts was in my bootleg again. You look and see."
"All right, Cap," answered the miner.
The leader of the outlaws stretched out his limbs and gave the man a
good chance to make the search before the eyes of the lookers-on.
He found the card the first thing, and, with a look of amazement on his
face, he held it up.
"There she is, Cap!" he exclaimed, with a shake of his head. "I didn't
think it was there; I thought ther Chinee was jest goin' ter let yer git
your money back. But there's ther jack of hearts, an' it sartinly was in
your boot!"
"Well, by ginger!" cried Roche. "I reckon I'm done with this kind of a
game. The heathen Chinee is altogether too much for me."
"Young Wild West told us he could beat anything there was goin'," spoke
up John Sedgwick. "He's a sleight-of-hand Chinee, that's what he is."
"Well, I am not a squealer, as you all know," said Roche. "But I do
think that some one should have told me that I was betting against a
sleight-of-hand performer."
"That wasn't fur us ter do, Cap," replied Sedgwick, shaking his head.
"You knowed that he was clever when yer seen him foolin' with ther
cards, an' doin' them other tricks. You lost your money jest because you
thought you was smarter than he was. I happen ter know that a man does a
very foolish thing when he bets ag'in a man showin' a trick. That's what
ther feller doin' it wants, an' he wins every time, too."