We specialize in eliminating and reducing myopia, having originated a recognized technique. ug the loss of three height, with busy rest, let's go and ask that cop there to arbitrate." That ended the bu: ness, and the young fellow has departed. Then turning to "Canadian" who had stood by in silence I suggested that we get on with the business of finding his hat shop As we walked along I lectured him, still In perfect good faith, on the folly of picking up chance acquaintances in the streets of strange cities. With equal solemnity he assured me that he was not to be caught so easily. We had quite a pleasant little discussion on the subject, a charming conversation which must, I imagine, be unique in the annals of the confidence trick, What he thought of me I cannot conceive.
But whether he thought that was pulling his leg me very subtle way, or whether he thought that 1 was just plain mad, it must have been highly mystifying to him. Anyhow he played his part very well right to the end.
Believe it or not, we did find that hat shop. It was inside some big hotel. At the door of the shop my canadian friend" suddenly said "Just wait here a moment. I want to go into the lobby to change a traveller's cheque." That struck me as queer, as he claimed to be staying at my hotel and I followed him, a a little distance, up the stairs into the lounge, where I saw him disappearing round a corner without stopping at the cashier's desk. Then, and then only, for the first time, it flashed into my mind that he, too, was in the game and was the decoy who was to have led me into th? trap.
I went back to my hotel in a very cheerful frame of mind, with his dollar in my pocket, which I had after all forgotten to return to him.
The only thing I regret in this affair is that I was unable to hear their comments on the perfect "sucker" whom they had caught so beautifully and yet so signally failed to pluck. It must have been a great disappointment for them.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.