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 rascal had ten chances to your one, and it's not strange you were bowled over."

"But what was it all for?" cried Philip once again. "What object was there for such a trick? But that brings us around just to where we started."

"My dear fellow," rejoined Mr. Hilliard, rising and leaning on the back of his great chair, "his object I don't think was any worse than the one we have decided upon. Surely, that is unfavorable enough to you, too. He is a common sharper. There are hundreds of them all about the country. He was coming on from B, where, I dare say, he had been losing money. Sitting near you he heard you discuss this trip that you are making. Every thing you said implied that you were going alone; and that meant that one or the other of you carried a couple of hundred dollars, or perhaps more—"

"We didn't say a word about money."

"But your whole look and conversation told him of your having it! Very well, then; how to get it from you was the task before him. It was simple for such a scamp, if he was lucky enough to be a little familiar with my doings