o play, the balls got into such awkward positions that it
appeared as if they were leagued against him.

Besides this, many things concurred to strengthen me in my pre-conceived
idea, that Cumberland was accommodating his play to that of Oaklands,
whom, I felt certain, he could have beaten easily, if he had been so
inclined. If this were really the case, the only conclusion one could
come to was, that the whole thing was a regularly arranged plot: the
object of which was to win as much as he could of Oaklands' money. The
marker's sneeze too, occurring so very opportunely for Cumberland's
interest; and the presence of the Captain, who, by his eulogiums on
Oaklands' skill, had excited him to continue playing, while, by his
observations and advice, he had endeavoured (whenever it was possible)
to raise the amount of the stakes; all this favoured my view of the
case. Still these were but suspicions; for I was utterly without proof:
and could I on mere suspicion tell Oaklands that he was a dupe, and
Cumberland a knave? No, this would never do; so I determined, as people
generally do when they are at their wits' end, and can ~71~~hit on
nothing better, to wait and see what time would bring forth, and act
according to circumstances.

Should any of my readers think such penetration unnatural in a boy of
my age, brought up in a quiet country parsonage, let them remember that,
though utterly ignorant of the ways of the world, I was what is called
a quick, sharp boy; that I had been informed Cumberland was not a person
to be trusted, nay, that he was known to have cheated some young
man before; and that, moreover, my very unworldliness and ignorance
increased my suspicions, inasmuch as it seemed to me that playing
billiards, at a public table, for what I considered large sums of money,
was neither more nor less than gambling; and gambling I viewed in the
light of a patent twenty-devil-power man-trap, fresh baited (in the
present case with a billiard cue and balls) by the claws of the Evil
One himself; consequently, I was prepared to view everything that passed
with the greatest mistrust; and, in such a frame of mind, I must have
been blind not to have perceived something of what was going on.

CHAPTER VIII -- GOOD RESOLUTIONS

"Blest are those
Whose blood and judgement are so well commingled,
That they are not a pipe for Fortune's linger
To sound what stop she please."
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