years, Levine came a cropper by
carelessly trying it on one of the same clerks that he had victimized
some time before. The clerk, being of an unusually vindictive
disposition, followed the matter up. Having first arrested the
man who made the false affidavit of service, he induced him to turn
State's evidence against my client and landed the latter in jail.
Being a great reader, however, Levine did not find his incarceration
particularly unpleasant; and, hearing of the Court of Appeals
decision in the McDuff case, he spent his time in devising new
schemes to take the place of his now antiquated specialty. On his
release he immediately became a famous "sick engineer" and for a
long time enjoyed the greatest prosperity, until one of his friends
victimized him at his own game by inducing him to bet ten thousand
dollars on the outcome of a prize-fight that he was simple-minded
enough to believe had already been fought and won.

This was an elaborate variation of the ordinary wire-tapping game,
where the sucker or lamb is introduced to a person alleged to be
an inside official of a large telegraph company, who is ready to
sell advance information of the results of sporting events in return
for a share in the profits. The victim is taken to a supposed
"branch office" of the company and actually hears the results of
the races coming in over the wires and being telephoned to the pool-
rooms. Of course the whole place is merely a plant fitted up for
his benefit. He is then taken to a supposed pool-room and gives
up his money for the purpose of having it placed as a wager on a
horse-race already won. Under the McDuff case, it had been held
by the courts that he had parted with his money for an illegal and
dishonest purpose--to wit, in an attempt to win money from another
who was wagering his own money in good faith--and the rogue who
had seduced his conscience and slit his purse went free. This was
Levine's favorite field of operations.

But his friend went him one better. Knowing that Levine had salted
away a lot of money, he organized a gang of "cappers" and boosters,
who made a great talk about the relative merits of two well-known
pugilists. It was given out that a fight was to be "pulled off"
up the Hudson and a party was made up to attend it. A private car
was taken by the friend in question and Levine was the guest of
honor. Champagne flowed freely. The fight came off in a deserted
barn near a siding above