The Washington critic., 1889-01-29

punt Dut IL was clear LO me Lnht bney
drew each other for partner rather more
often than should expect.
l watched their faces Not n look
passed between them. Each was alb
sorbed in the study of his own cards.
There was, of course, no mirror in the
room in which the cards could be re-
| flected; and there was fresh pack for
each rubber, so the cards could not be
marked.
Yet grew moro aud more certain
every moment that there was c0llusion
between the two. II so, how did they
communicate
looked at their legs, The chevalier
sat upright In stiff military attitude;
Bl6pper sat in heap. with his legs
tucked under his chair. There was no
communication under the table. was
at fault. Again / felt inclined TO give
the thing up, and leaning back in my
chair, ceased to strain my eyes upon their
every movement, and allowed my atten.
tion to relax.
Now | have always been noted for the
acuteness of my sense Of hearing. II is
painfully acute, so much so that num-
berless little jarring sounds, which fall
unheeded on an ordinary ear, are to me
the source of positive agony. AS, then,
| lounged in my chair into sort of half.
dream. heard little tap. The room, OF
course, was perfectly still, as the exigen.
cies of the game required / hardly no
ticcd the sound, but presently it came
again. This time IL was doubled-tap,
tap. My attention was now thoroughly
aroused, and listened with all my
might. Three times more heard It
once single, twice treble.
| hot oh tar
drumming on his cards with his finger
nails. But in the course Of my profes-
sional experiences had given much at
tention to telegraphing, flag signalling
and signalling of every kind and felt
convinced that these taps conveyed in
formation from one to another with
reference to the game.
/ moved in my chair 80 that l could
watch the chevalier's left hand. Now
that I knew what to expect 1 never
missed one of the signals. But could
not interpret them. Clearly they meant
something but / could not make out
what.
Presently I noticed another thing. The
chevalier, when 1t was Bloppers turn to
lead would raise his first finger the least
bit in the world from his cards, or he
would similarly raise the second finger,
or the third, or the fourth. This move
mcnt was distinct from the taps, and
probably conveyed some different mean
ing watched Blopper's leads and
found 1t out. l had already noticed that
Blopper did the same thing when 1t was
the chevalier's lead,
This was what / discovered. When
the first finger was raised the partner
usually led heart. The second finger
lie. "A. ,t.I -, n.,I
the fourth spade,
I had scarcely made this discovery
when the rubber came to an end, and !
had to postpone my further investiga.
ton. said nothing to Jones about my
success; for was resolved to elucidate
the meaning of the taps before l gave
my revelations to any one. had con
lecture in my mind as to their probable
signi6cance-a conjecture which l ulti
mately found to be correct
During the next few days / made the
most OF my opportunities and got the
taps complete.
A card has been played, say the three
Of diamonds. One tap means ~ hold the
ace." Two taps, given slowly, denote
the king, three denote the queen. One
tap, followed quickly by another, like a
quaver In music, followed by semi
quaver, denotes the knave; one tap, fol
lowed slowly by two little ones, denotes
the ten.
So far so good. But was sure the r,
were other signals in use between thil
precious pair, by which they conveyed Il
each other how many they had of asuit
This was done by movement of the
cards in the hand; by closing them up SC
that only the backs Of certain numbers
could be seen. But / could not discover
the secret of this maneuver, do what
would. All that j saw was that there
was no signal when three of suit were
held. doubtless because that Ia the aver
age number.
However. I had now all that I wanted
verified my discovery by one more
patient and careful scrutiny, after which
told Jones. He listened TO me with
close attention, and then slapped me or
the back,
perkins, my boy" he was pleased tt
observe. "you are not such fool as you
look. What shall we do with them2"
"Why, there's the difficulty" said
"The fact is that II seconded tn,
chevalier when he was put up by til,
club shall look rather foolish II thu
man Is exposed"
| "True," said Jones thoughtfully. 20
think the best thing will be to let then
know that we have found them out, ant
/ give them hint to quit the place anc
travel in foreign parts"
After some further dellberation we de
cided to pursue this course, and concoctet
our plan of action.
: The next night Jones and met in tn,
card room, and invited the chevalier anC
Mr.. Blopper to join in rubber. Probabl,
to avert suspicion, the two confederate
I seldom played together in the first rub
ber, although they were sure to get to
gether ultimately; so IT happened tina
the chevalier and found ourselves op
posed to Jones and Mr.. Blopper. There
! was no other occupant of the room a
, this time.
dealt. Jones led the four of club
| and tapped twice on his cards to show
that he had lead from the king, tool
the trick with the ace ] led spade
and gave the necessary signal to SHOW
, that had the ace. Jones played small
one, but raped to his partner that h,
had the queen. Our taps were quit
unnecessarily loud. / looked up ant
/ saw Blopper's face twitch; chevalier
! expression was quite unconscious. Per
, haps it was slightly too childlike anI
bland; but that is hypercritical,
The chevalier took the trick with tn
king. He hesitated what to play, ant
looking absent-mindedly at me, behold
there was my first finger sticking up oh
stinately in the air. For moment hi
face changed, but he recovered himself
The Cheyalier playcd a heart lone