The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Swindler and Other Stories, by Ethel M.
Dell

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Title: The Swindler and Other Stories

Author: Ethel M. Dell

Release Date: June 21, 2006 [eBook #18644]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SWINDLER AND OTHER STORIES***

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THE SWINDLER AND OTHER STORIES

by

ETHEL M. DELL

Author of the Hundredth Chance, Etc.

Grosset & Dunlap Publishers New York
Made in the United States of America

This edition is issued under arrangement with the publishers
G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press, New York

The stories contained in this volume were originally published in the
_Red Magazine_.

CONTENTS

The Swindler

The Swindler's Handicap

The Nonentity

Her Hero

The Example

The Friend who Stood By

The Right Man

The Knight-Errant

A Question of Trust

Where the Heart Is

* * * * *

The Swindler

"When you come to reflect that there are only a few planks between you
and the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, it makes you feel sort of
pensive."

"I beg your pardon?"

The stranger, smoking his cigarette in the lee of the deck-cabins,
turned his head sharply in the direction of the voice. He encountered
the wide, unembarrassed gaze of a girl's grey eyes. She had evidently
just come up on deck.

"I beg yours," she rejoined composedly. "I thought at first you were
some one else."

He shrugged his shoulders, and turned away. Quite obviously he was not
disposed to be sociable upon so slender an introduction.

The girl, however, made no move to retreat. She stood thoughtfully
tapping on the boards with the point of her shoe.

"Were you playing cards last night down in the saloon?" she asked
presently.

"I was looking on."

He threw the words over his shoulder, not troubling to turn.

The girl shivered. The morning air was damp and chill.

"You do a good deal of that