Evening star., 1922-07-23

five thousand" said the chief con man
easily.
Its as sure as that." queried Ar
thur.
IT'S pretty sure" said Black.
briefly.
A POOL was made up into which
\ Black put $4,000. Arthur $4,000
and White $4,000. Here the con men
used on their victim the familiar in
and-in trick, commonly used in most
con games. 1t consists Of apparently
risking and losing the money Of the
conspirators along with that Of the
victim, in order to disarm him in case
he becomes suspicious when the play
goes against him. What can . man
say to his friends when they have ap-
parently lost more than he? Can he
berate them and reviie them for their
own misfortune?
Black took the $4,000 and conduct
ed Arthur to the great gambling
casino at Palm Beach, where he left
his friend watching the play while
he lodged into a side room and made
the bet on the horse race.
Late that afternoon, when the re-
turns were in and it was apparent
to the bewildered Arthur that he
had lost s25,ooo, Black came into his
hotel raging and swearing. He had
been double-crossed by a Jockey. Ar
thur might read for himself the ac-
count of the race and see that the
horse he had been led to bet on was
ahead when the nags turned into the
stretch. but it had fallen behind and
finished in the rear. The Jockey had
pulled the horse. There was no other
explanation.
Black tore the heavens asunder with
his profanity and threats of revenge
He wrote out threatening. furious
kilograms in Arthur's presence and
sent them OFF in charge of a bellboy.
Arthur did not stop to find out that
this bellboy was paid to play a part
and that none of the wires ever went
further than the wastebasket.
Then Black fell to lamenting and
apologizing. Arthur ought to under
reluctant about letting his friend bet.
These things did happen now and
then. 1t was unavoidable. To one
who followed the races professionally
these things were of no great import
save that they made one angry, But
to have a friend lose his money. That
was too frightful! Never mind. Black
would show this new friend OF his
how to recoup. good and plenty.
A second build-up followed, with the
result that Arthur went north and re-
turned at the end OF a week with
$4,000 in cash. He put this into a
pool Of 100000, the rest of the money
being supplied by Black and White.
r
ONCE more Black went to the
Casino and gave the appearance
of having bet the money there with
mysterious bookmaker, said to rep
resent New York and Havana syn
dicate of rich men whose names were
freely banded about by the con oper-
ators. The wager was ostensibly laid
on an outsider. quoted at to 1. but
Black assured his man that there was
no question about the result this
time and that fortune was a. good
IS won. OF course no bet was laid.
And a curious thing happened This
horse. quoted at long odds In a field
of eight and played by nobody but his
owners and a few friends, came with
in an ace of winning the race. being
beaten by the favorite by less than
half length.
There was the usual exaggerated
wailing and gnashing Of teeth that
evening. and the con men actually
tried to get Arthur to go home for
more money and make a third wager,
but he was either skeptioal or he hsd
no more funds to lose. So he quit The
game q hundred thousand out Of
pocket