um card somewhere, so be!"
was the quick retort.

"You will, eh? All right. I'm a betting man, I am. It don't make any
difference who I bet with, either. I'll bet you ten dollars that I
haven't got the card on me. If one has got it you're the one, for you
are doing the trick."

Hop held up both hands and threw open his coat, to show that he did not
have it.

Then he laid ten dollars on the table.

"Boys," said Roche, looking at those around him, "I don't know just what
kind of a game I am up against; but I do know that I haven't got that
card anywhere on my person. I feel so sure of it that I'll bet a hundred
dollars instead of ten!"

"Allee light."

As quick as a wink Hop's hand went into his pocket and out came a roll
of bills.

He quickly counted out ninety dollars more and put it on the table.

Roche immediately covered it, and then, rising to his feet, he moved
away from the table and called out:

"Hoker, come here and search me. If you find the jack of hearts anywhere
on me the Chinaman wins. If you don't find it I win."

"Lat light," said Hop, nodding to the boss of the place.

Hoker came forward and proceeded to go through the man's pockets.

He did not find the card in any of the pockets, so he went on down and
tried the boot-tops.

Then it was that he pulled out a card from one of them.

"Here she is, Cap!" he exclaimed, as he arose and held out the card so
all could see it. "Here's ther jack of hearts!"

"Tricked, by thunder!" exclaimed Roche, as Hop smiled and put the money
in his pocket.

"Mighty clever, I should say," ventured Sedgwick. "Cap, yer shouldn't
have bet."

"I couldn't help it," was the reply. "But I know how it was done. He put
the card in my bootleg when he was looking around under the table."

"No; that couldn't be," declared the saloon keeper. "He put ther card in
ther pack after that. An' I'll swear that he wasn't near enough ter put
it on you after that, even if he had it in his hand."

"Well, that is true, come to think of it. But he got it there, somehow."

Roche took the card and looked it over.

Then he picked up the pack and compared the backs of the cards with the
one he held in his hand.

"I lose the hundred, that's all," he exclaimed. "But I'll bet another
hundred he can't work that trick again!"

Hop smiled.

"You allee samee watched too muchee," he said.

"You bet I would watch."

The cards were laid on the table by him, and Hop picked them up