CARD TRICK

Hokitika Guardian, 18 November 1931, Page 8

CARD TRICK

A NEW ZEALANDER’S EXPERIENCE.

LONDON, November 8

Mr John F. Willcox- (Christchurch) came in contact with a party of , “crooks” on ai train journey from the docks to the City a few days ago. Their methods did not deceive him and he was given up as a bad mark. Mr Willcox’s description of the incident is liriteresting as showing the way some people earn their living. “The train stopped at one of the Albert Dock .stations,”’ said Mr Willcox, “and two men made for the door of my compartment. They came to the door simultaneously, which led to a scuffle ending in the larger man entering my compartment and appearing to be rather upset, while the other apparently disappeared. The large man who •was shabbily dressed, after taking his seat, complained about drunken men in an undertone. Just before the train started two other men jumped on, one apparently a clerk and the other aii elderly grocer. “The clerk sat on the other side of the compartment opposite the shabby man, and the apparent grocer sat opposite to me, The last-mentioned was of the genial, fatherly sort, and pretended to treat the big shabby man who had the scuffle as a great joke. He became over courteous and hid his face and mine, when speaking, with a newspaper.

“The shabby man suddenly sat over bn the. seat opposite me between the clerk and grocer and whipped out a piece of green baize and a pack of cards. He began to play an old game known ap ‘Follow the Lady,’ and asked the grocer if he could guess where the queen was. The grocer laughed, winked at me, and said, ‘All right, old chap, but not for money.’ “Needless to say, the grocer picked the right card every time, and he then leaned , over and whispered to me that it was the card with the corner bent up, but he reminded me, winking as he did so, not to say anything about it.

•T now kept my eyes skinned on all three at once and did not take any notice of the game. The man who was ✓working the cards would ask which one, and 1 informed him that 1 neither knew nor cared. Be then purposely dropped a card on the floor of the carriage and asked me if I would pick it up for him, but as I did not wish to have a cracked skull, I declined. “That little game up, the clerk suddenly pulled out a ten shilling note and he bet that it was a certain card. .He won, .but I did not bite, and I got up and told them what I thought of them. A.s we were pulling into the next station, the three °f them — clerk, shabby man, and grocer—got up, dashed ol the train, and were swallowed up in London.”