"John D. Fitzgerald - The Great Brain At the AcademyUC - 4" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fitzgerald John D)

Mr. Walters looked as surprised as a man who opens
a can of beans and finds peas inside instead. "You must
be mistaken," he said. "I inspected that deck of cards be-
fore the men started to play, and my years of experience

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as a conductor have taught me just about every way a deck
can be marked."

"These cards are marked at the factory," Tom said.
"My uncle. Mark Trainor. is the marshal and deputy sher-
iff in Adenville and he showed me a deck just like it. A
salesman selling playing cards came to town. He offered
both saloonkeepers such a good price that they each
bought fifty decks of cards. A week later a man calling
himself Harry Johnson came to town and began playing
poker in both saloons. He won so much money that the
players said he was either the luckiest poker player in the
world or a caid cheat. But nobody could prove he was
cheating and he kept on winning money every night. Un-
cle Mark knew nobody could be that lucky. He got a deck
of the cards from a saloonkeeper and took it to his office.
He studied it for hours before he discovered how they
were marked at the factory. He arrested Harry Johnson,
who confessed he and the card salesman were partners."

Mr, Walters nodded his head. "That was a slick confi-
dence game," he said. "The salesman got the cards into the
saloons and then his partner came along and, using the
marked cards, had to win. I didn't like the looks of that
Harrison fellow with his manicured nails and waxed
moustache. They are his cards."

They went to the smoking car and waited until the
poker players finished playing a hand. Mr. Harrison won
again. Then Mr. Walters picked up the deck of cards.

"What is the idea?" Mr. Harrison asked. "You
checked these cards and so did these three gentlemen
before we started to play."

"Then you won't mind if my friend here takes a look

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at them/' Mr. Walters said, handing the deck to Tom.

"That's the kid who sold us the food," Mr. Harrison