Page:Waylaid by Wireless - Balmer - 1909.djvu/284

Rh steal among us—he steal only the pools and we, on our side, offer him each night fair pools to steal!

"Appreciate, gentlemen," he explained as he saw the start of astonishment which greeted him, "if we cannot make some such compact to govern the manœuvres of this remarkable Mr. Manling, we not only lose a most extraordinary sporting opportunity, but we must leave him to continue his operations promiscuously—as he robbed Mr. Preston and myself and one of the ladies last night.

"I say, our police are undoubtedly making every effort to collect evidence to cable to New York to identify him and catch him when he lands. But, as the captain has just told you, he seems to have left absolutely no clue. So, unless we can confine him by this compact or somehow, he can probably continue to plunder us all as he pleases and walk off the gangplank at New York as coolly as he walked on at Southampton. So the captain agreed that this seemed fair for us.

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