decide to make a victim of him, if he could.

Hop had thought out a brand new trick with a deck of cards, and he was
all fixed to work it on somebody.

He was pleased to find that he had a victim.

Shuffling the pack well, he spread them out like a fan and held the
cards so that some of the faces could be seen by Roche.

"You see um jack of hearts?" he asked.

"Yes," was the reply.

"Allee light; you allee samee lemember um jack of hearts."

Then he gave the cards another shuffle, and in doing it one of them
slipped up his sleeve unobserved by any one.

There was really nothing wonderful about this, since there was a thin
piece of elastic attached to the card, and the moment it was released it
left the pack.

As might be supposed, it was the jack of hearts.

But Hop had another jack of hearts, as he needed it to carry out the
trick.

He kept this one concealed in his hand and passed the deck to Roche,
saying:

"You pickee outee um jack of hearts and me allee samee showee how me
makee fly away."

The man quickly looked over the cards and found that the jack of hearts
was not among them.

"I reckon you took it when no one was looking," he said, with a smile.
"That is not much of a trick; I could do that myself."

"Me no takee," declared the Celestial, putting on a look of surprise.
"Maybe allee samee dlop on um floor."

He got up from his chair, and then, dropping upon his hands and knees,
began looking around on the floor under the table.

While doing this he cleverly slipped the card he had in his hand into
the boot-top of Roche.

Then, before he got up, he pulled the card that had the elastic attached
to it from his sleeve and held it so the elastic was concealed.

"Here um card," he said, as he showed it to every one. "Me puttee in um
pack, so be."

Roche was watching him closely, for he knew that the Chinaman was up to
something, and he was certain that the card went into the pack.

But it did not.

It slipped up Hop sleeve the same as it had done the first time.

"Now you findee um jack of hearts," he said, smilingly.

Roche nodded and proceeded to look for it.

"It isn't here," he said, looking surprised.

"You wantee tly foolee poor Chinee," Hop declared, putting on an injured
look. "You takee um card and puttee in your boot, so be."

"What's that?" cried Roche, half angrily. "Do you mean to say that I
stole the card from the pack?"

"Me allee samee bettee ten dollee you gottee