“See here, young follow, five hundred is enough for you to lose.”

“No, no, I am not losing.”

“You ain’t?”

“No.”

“Suppose you are mistaken.”

“I can stand it.”

“You can?”

“I can.”

“All right; no use for me to attempt to stand against a young fellow like you.  I begin to suspect you’ve been playing innocent, and I will teach you a lesson; I raise you a hundred.”

“I see it and go two hundred better.”

Each time a bet was made the money was laid on the table, and it was a very exciting scene and moment.  The sharp looked puzzled; he had laid out for a dead sure thing, but there had come a complete change over Desmond, and it was the latter fact that scared the sharp.  He hesitated, but at length, in a slow tone, said: 

“I’ll see you a call,” and he laid down his cards.  He held four jacks, a great hand, but one that is often beaten, of course, and it was beaten on this occasion, for, strange to declare, Desmond held four kings.

Right here let us offer an explanation.  Our hero was playing against a false deal; the man who was leading him made the fatal mistake that he was working with a gudgeon on his hook, consequently he was not watchful.  The wizard tramp had taught Desmond a great many tricks, and the lad’s natural discernment and watchfulness had prepared him for the hand when the great trick was to be sprung, and unwatched he worked a bigger trick.  He did not know what the hand was he was pitted against, but he had been let in to gamblers’ tricks, that is, “snide” gamblers.  These fellows in making a false deal do not win on the highest hands, for they always know the hand against them.  The fellow who was seeking to rob Desmond thought he knew our hero’s hand, but it was right there he was fooled.  Our hero had worked his own trick, as stated—­he stole a hand so deftly that the unwatchful robbers did not see him do it, and it was there he had them.  He was really taking a slight chance, but only a slight one, and what followed?  Well, it was a case of the biter bitten, and when Desmond exposed his hand there came a look upon the sharp’s face that can never be described, but which might be photographed with a snap-shot machine.

There fell a dead stillness in that car for a few seconds, and then the defeated sharp said: 

“Aha! you are a cheat.”

“Am I?”

Desmond was perfectly cool.

“Yes, you are, and that money is mine.”

“Is it?”

“Oh, see here, young fellow, don’t you attempt to bluff me, or I’ll mark you.”

As intimated, there had come a great change over Desmond.  He did not look like and he certainly did not act like the same person who a little time previously had been learning gambling tricks from the sharp.  The gambler attempted to rake the money from the seat, and it was at that moment the real fun commenced.