The Clio messenger., 1915-10-01


ute to learn his tricks.
He was drunk most Of the time. and
on several occasions the circus cry Of
'Hey. rube!" and the razor back
burlies were all that saved him from
the enraged revenge of The losers who
had caught on to his clumsy tricks.
Then Mike Garvin curtly ordered me
to take his table.
That night the local police arrested
Slide for a murder he'd committed
seven years before in Kentucky. He
was taken away cursing Mike Gar
ven; swearing revenge with horrible
mouthed oaths.
I thought Of that growing state
ment Mike had made when he hired
me; thought of il for an instant, then
went on blissfully practising with the
cards that were to make me one of
the real members of Garven's mob"
OF gamblers.
But I thought OF 1t afterward. and
l cursed my master even as poor old
Slide had cursed that night when they
took him away to the waiting scaffold
in Kentucky.
In the three years I followed the
circus I learned all of the tricks of
Pie trade; and number of other
things, too. l learned that three-card
monte and the shell game were not
the things for man who wanted big
money. That's what l wanted, and
every big town we hit made me want
1t more.
I could see the end of our games,
demanded something besides mere
cleverness of hands; l needed knowl-
edge.
So when the other members Of the
mob were losing their winnings in the
tent poker games, was reading good
books, or stealing away to see show.
l knew Mikes approving eyes were
on me.
"Jim," he said one day-if haven't
mentioned it. before, Jim Haviland
was the name I took when / Joined
the mob-"you're too clever for this.
I'm going to take you and one or two
other boys I've had my eye on for
some time and go out after the real
easy money"
I walked on air after that. The
great Mike Garven had told me that
l was clever. He was going to show
me the way to the big coin.
Three months later we quit the cir
Gus. The new methods of circus
management were cutting out the
gamblers that had formerly brought
the biggest part of the days receipts,
and people were making it hard for
them to work.
Mike had seen the end of the game,
just as I had. Besides me he took
four other young fellows, none from
our mob, but boys I knew by reputa-
tion, and ones that his all-seeing gray
eyes had been watching for years.
Fake gold-mining stock was the
game. Mike had saved money. He
put us each in charge OF a swell Office
and spent hundred thousand adver-
tising. The money rolled in.
/ was in Chicago, where l had my
fine bachelor apartments and my au-
tomobile. Mike was big broker in
New York member in half dozen
exclusive clubs.
For five years we took in our thou
sands; then Mike again read the wri-
ting on the wall. People were getting
wise. The post office authorities were
making arrests right and left.
One morning | got telegram-the
same telegram that went to every one
one word: Close" A day later was
on my way to New York, and the
United Mining Securities was out of
business.
Then the wonders of Mike Garven's
brain began to really show. He was
still a broker in New York. The j.
Michael Garven on the door of his
luxurious Office was not a bit more
dignified than the distinguished-lool,-
ing, gray-eyed man with the silver at
his temples and the chin of Napo-
leon.
oCHcHlt dlltT SClltUle IOT easy IUOn-
ey flowed from his wonderful brain.
He had an organization now; devel-
oped in the years he had been wait
ing for the mining stock game to go
under.
He wss the plotter, the planner; we
did the work. l was his star man.
The games he planned took me 10
every part of the country; they were
always successful; always above sus.
picion-except one.
I'd always been so careful that there
was never a chance of anyone getting
anything on me. But this time-well
my conceit made me careless.
was promoting real-estate deal
in Chicago. Some of Mikes men
none of us ever knew the extent of his
organization-had tipped him the
prospect, and he had put it wholly in
my hands.
had the sucker who was going to
put up fifty thousand going fine. Sud-