fidence in his own gambling abilities, or deemed himself a favourite
of fortune. He engaged again, and was again successful--which increased
his exultation and confirmed his future confidence; and thus did the
simple gudgeon swallow their bait, till it became at last fast hooked.

When rendered thus secure of their prey, they began to level their
whole train of artillery against the boasted honours of his short-lived
triumph. Then the extensive manors, the ancient forests, the paternal
mansions, began to tremble for their future destiny. The pigeon was
marked down, and the infernal crew began in good earnest to pluck his
rich plumage. The wink was given on his appearance in the room, as
a signal of commencing their covert attacks. The shrug, the nod, the
hem--every motion of the eyes, hands, feet--every air and gesture, look
and word--became an expressive, though disguised, language of fraud and
cozenage, big with deceit and swollen with ruin. Besides this, the
card was marked, or 'slipped,' or COVERED. The story is told of a noted
sharper of distinction, a foreigner, whose hand was thrust through with
a fork by his adversary, Captain Roche, and thus nailed to the table,
with this cool expression of concern--'I ask your pardon, sir, if you
have not the knave of clubs under your hand.' The cards were packed,
or cut, or even SWALLOWED. A card has been eaten between two slices of
bread and butter, for the purpose of concealment.

With wily craft the sharpers substituted their deceitful 'doctors' or
false dice; and thus 'crabs,' or 'a losing game,' became the portion of
the 'flats,' or dupes.

There were different ways of throwing dice. There was the 'Stamp'--when
the caster with an elastic spring of the wrist rapped the cornet or box
with vehemence on the table, the dice as yet not appearing from under
the box. The 'Dribble' was, when with an air of easy but ingenious
motion, the caster poured, as it were, the dice on the board--when, if
he happened to be an old practitioner, he might suddenly cog with his
fore-finger one of the cubes. The 'Long Gallery' was when the dice were
flung or hurled the whole length of the board. Sometimes the dice were
thrown off the table, near a confederate, who, in picking them up,
changed one of the fair for a false die with two sixes. This was
generally done at the first throw, and at the last, when the fair die
was replaced. The sixes were on the opposite squares, so that the fraud
could