Swindlers Outwitted.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 211, 16 July 1887, Page 5 (Supplement)

Swindlers Outwitted.

The following account of how t\\ o London swindlers were outwitted by the natives of Wiltshire County is taken from the " Licensed Victuallers' Gazette " :—": — " Your professional swindlers do notalwaysgetthe best of it when they throw out a sprat to catch a gudgeon, for sometimes the gudgeon swallows the bait and slips the hook. Some members of the Long Firm having found London too Av r arm for them, thought they would rusticate for awhile, and being tremendous toffs, flashing jewellery, and looking like money all over, made sure of leaping a splendid harvest among the Johnny Raws. The first place at which they pitched was the quiet city of Salisbury, where they put up at the first hotel, and scraped acquaint ance in the billiard room with young Squire Harrison. Thinking they had caught a flat, they invited him to dine with them, and dining the meal the squire gave them an invitation to eat their mutton with him next day at the hall. After dinner the sharps proposed card a, and making sure of their revenge on the morrow, allowed him to win thirty pounds. The next clay, at the appointed hour, they presented themselves at the hall, were very cordially received and very hospitably entertained. After the cloth had been removed and the bottle had begun to circulate, one of the guesis proposed a cut in at the pasteboard. ' Very sorry, gentlemen,' replied the host, ' but I have not a pack of cards or a dice box in the house, and, what is more, I have made a solemn vow that no kind of gaming shall ever take place within these doors, 1 Thereupon the others ex pressed their opinion that it was a d— d ungentlemanly thing not to give them a chance of winning back their money. 'Not at all,' replied the squfre coolly ; 'it was a fair match of wits ; having had the pleasure of meeting you gentlemen in London, and pretty well guessing your errand here, I threw out the bait of an invitation, which you responded to by letting me win thirty pounds on the chance of doubling or trebling that sum at my expense to-night. The little speculation has failed. Upon which he rang the bell, and requested the servant to show ' the gentlemen ' out. After that these chevaliers d'industrie thought it better to quit the cathedral precincts and mado for Mai'lborough, where racing was going on. There they fell in with a knot of young fellows who, though rather green, were shy of strangers. On the ground, however, they met the landlord of the hotel at which they had put up, who, seeming rather a fly sort of customer, they proposed that they and the victims should adjourn to his house. Tuts Avas agreed to. One of the sharpers, calling Boniface aside, asked him to join them in a game of cards, at the same time tipping a wink, and saying 'We'll take care you win. You understand V ' Oh, perfectly,' replied mine host, with another wink. Under the influence of sundry potations the youngsters were drawn into a game of Nap and cleaned out, the sharks, for a blind, losing as much as they did, and the landlord taking the lot. When the pigeons had gone our friends suggested ' a settling up.' Boniface pretended he did not understand what they meant. ' Why didn't we tell you you were to win V said they. ' Well, and I have won, and what's

more I mean to keep what I've won,' replied Boniface, with a chuckle. ' Oh, we'll see about that,' said one of the- sharpers, pugnaciously, ' And if you don't start out of this at once you'll see the inside of a gaol for a couple of swindlers,' answered the landlord. ' Now out you go, or I'll call in the constable and give you in charge.' After thut the two confederates returned to London to seek for those Verdant Greens they could not discover in bucolic regions "