A BLUFF THAT WAS'NT CALLED.

Taihape Daily Times, 31 May 1918, Page 7

A BLUFF THAT WAS'NT CALLED.

The best bit of bluff !.‘ve mot was pulled off in the b.,d days i’ojlowiug the boom, says a contributor to the Sydney “Bulletin.” Three Bohemians in Melbourne —a freelance paragrapher and bard, a promising young artist, , and a gentle hornblower in a local theatre orchestra —came, by a stroke of fortune, into possession of the centre house of a rather fine suburban terra'c'e. The French horn, in point of fact, had been appointed caretaker in the absence of the profitable tenants. The three moved in, and on the fifth night the bard awoke in his bed on the floor to find a stranger standing bewildered among the few trifles that furnished theroom. “Hello!” said the versifier blandly, “who are you?” The man presented a revolver. “You won five hundred at the races to-day,” he said, “Fve been put on to you, ‘n’ I want it.” “Some mistake,” said the bard. “Oh, no, there ain’t, Mr. Wallstein —me information’s good. So fork it over.” “All wrong,” said the bard “you had better try next door on the

right.” “Ah, rats!” snorted the burglar. “I was in there ’n’ the bloke told me Wallstein lived in here.” The bard sat up to hand out a clinching argument: “See here,” he said, “If I’d won £SOO I’d never go to bed.” With an oath the burglar looked around the bare room and fled. The man whom he had first visited on the right was actually Wallstein, the party who had won the five hundred.