RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONDON DETECTIVE (Continued.)

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 28 May 1891, Page 4

RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONDON DETECTIVE (Continued.)

straight look of mine at the sharper who had backed him. "Oh, you think— you think you can play better than my friend, Mr Warren ?" he iiiceringly retorted, taking his scat again, a;ul fondling lovingly with ihc tiger-head. " Very well. We shall see what you can do. Take up the cards." lie knew a good many tricks wkh the cards, and could make the pass with a neat»ier.s and rapidity which I never saw excelled, but there was one trick known to me which he either did not . know or did not attempt. It was taught me one night when waiting at the Boulogne railway station by a clever rascal whom I. had followed for nearly a thousand miles before I fairly caught him. He fought hard at. the capture, and damaged my face a little, but when he fairly found the game was up he became as friendly as possible. We had four hours to wait on the train, and, after taking the precaution of locking the door, I took the bracelets from his wrists, and allowed him to teach me that trick. I thought so much of the trick that when we got to London I said nothing of the smash he had given me, and so saved him a few months on his sentence. With most card tricks, a slender hand and soft fingers are a great help. Mine is neither, but it is big, and that, with a certain neaincss and rapidity; is all that is needed in the hick I had learned. / 1 cut and he-dealt, and as he had politely re.;uc.',(.ed every one to stand away from my chuir, and I watched like a hawk every movement he made, the first; round ended pretty even. While playing I" had marked my I.:: .t cards with my nail, and when he cut to r.;e, my wish was to bring those cards into my hand again. I easily got them into the proper order, but it was necessary also to Icing them, to the top of the pack, and I t'v .!!, v lit that, a good .opportunity to show hi; i ihiit there were feats- in card-cheating which he had yet to learn. He had followed my every movement with a wicked smile, .'!:(! z. look of, triumph was beginning to ;;■ .Tc.-.d over his face, for if I fyadhad no re- ;; r.ce but the antiquated pass, I should c ■-. : ir.inly at that juncture have found myself i:i a worse plight than if I had left the t.i •• ••mgement of the cards to chance. 4; Every eye round the table, except those of the plucked pigeon, was fixed upon me lihc an elongated telescope, and it was necessary at that critical moment to divert these ryes for the merest fraction of time. My eyes were bent abstractedly upon the cards in my hands. '„,.. j ust then I swiftly raised them, and looked v.-ith a powerful start across at the tiger head of the malacca cane. Every one, including the owner, glanced in the same direction, and during the brief moment the trick was done. The Greek knew that it was done, though he could not tell how, and Uk- moment he looked at his hand, he tossed down the cr.vdrs, stretched his hand across the table to prasp my own, and exclaimed with an c.r.ih— "Well done! I never saw anything like it !" Then with a significant pressure of my hand after the freemasonry of ■ all thieves and scamps, he added — "There is no use of us playing; it is a waste .of time. We are both too clever. Let ns drink." We had the drink, and he got quite friendly, and even invited me ,to. spend an evening with him at his apartments! I was dying to ask him where these were located, but refrained for fear of arousing suspicion; and it did not appear to strike him as necessary to give me his address. After a little, when the other sharpers had drawn off, and the pi ncked pigeon was absorbed in watching another man being fleeced at a table near us, the secret of his sudden effusion' 61 friendliness came out. " I'll tell you what, sir," he said, with emphasis and a sudden changing of the subject, " I'd give a tenner down to know how that trick of yours is done." "The trick is not to be bought," I answered with a grin. " I should teach it only to my closest friend." " 7 hen let's hope that I'll become one of them," he said,- fervently ; to which I could not hf.'p responding — " J hope so, with all my heart." It is oiten when every prospect seems brightest that the most sudden and disastrous defeat conies. I was getting on swimn:in;'ly with my new acquaintance ; very little more and I should have been into his • :<M-.i:c:encp, for he evidently took me for as f rcm a rogue as himself. But, as chance vvi-ii'd hr.ye it, he moved across the room tc ix;'; to tin acquaintance. The man was 'ol •. iv w.i to r, c\ but he must have known my ii:-i\ 1 saw him whisper something tc tile < ,::.^k with a grin on his face ; the othei t-taritd, .-Mid glared for a nioment at me as U lie c r.!d have slaughtered me with pleasure, then in an instant he made for the door. ] h;ul ivj intention of stopping him, but ) tlu.n, ht it wise to move in the same directiui. We reached the door together, and then, with some awful oaths in French, he ih:< .tiled me like lightning, dashed me rp,r.ii:st the wall, and disappeared, cane and ill. I was not much hurt, except in temper. jrul such scenes are so common in these places that the momentary encounter .'f.-irely excited comment. I j;» plucked pigeon looked up for a iv.< -lient in a muddled, condition from the ;;v!s at which' lie had been steadily drinking ;;;: 1 returned to the room, and I addressed 1.1. i— " Have you -Jost much, off aqd on, with your friend ?" ' ■' The little scapegrace— he was quite a mite of a man— blinked at me drunkenly for * moment, and then said — , "Ten thousand "pounds, if it's a penny. But then he's a real marquis. Gad, it's something to lose your money to a real marquis." - « "A. marquis !" e»elaifced> '^sharper and a " ■" ■_--•■■■• I was about to add the rest of Moulpied's feats, but caught myself in time. Warren reiused to speak another word with me, and said that, for traducing his friend, he would lisht me ! — me, who could have put him in my coat pocket ! I stayed no longer, and in passing out noticed that the long table used for Trente et Quarante had suddenly changed into an innocent billiard - table, over which the players were bending with praise-worthy diligence. For two days I failed to get the slighest trace of the tiger-headed malacca, but at the end of that time I had- a line from Mrs Warren asking me to call and see her, and < excusing herself for not calling on me on account of the illness of " Baby Pet." 1 found the house to^be a large one, but its very grandeur made it seem empty and cold without its master's presence. There were three maidservants, . . but it. was clear to me that the young wife was there more lonely than she would have been' in the heart of a desert. . ;. • ' I found her in the dining-room with the nursemaid and "Baby Pet." The child was a poor, puny thing, with death writtec on its face, as I thought." "It won't trouble "her' Ibngi'v was my reflection, though she herself looked strong enough to live fifty years longer. Her object in sending for me was to tell me that the Greek was to,meet her husband i that night at a certain place, which from the form of the address appeared to be furnished lodgings. She believed the place to be Bordelaise's address, and in her inno(To be Continued.)