"A reg'lar swell rig-out," 'e answered, "fine togs, a gold watch and chain, and a ring, and two pound a week to keep yerself. When the job's finished yer'll get a fourth of the winnin's."
I didn't throw away the chance—not me! Fine togs, a gold watch and chain, a ring, and two pound a week—why, it wos a reg'lar slice o' luck, with me starving, and not knowing where to git my next meal from!
"I'll jine yer," said I. "'Ere's my 'and on it. Who's the pigeon?"
"D'yer remember that friend of our'n as Morgan played billiards with at the Jolly Ploughboy?" arst Maxwell.
"Send I may live!" I cried. "If that's 'im we're done! 'E'll know me agin as sure as guns."
"I'll eat my 'ead if 'e does," sed Maxwell. "You 'ad a mustarsh and a pair o' whiskers, and you've got 'em now. Shave 'em off, and slip into yer new togs, and yer own mother wouldn't know yer."
He wos right. Yer wouldn't believe the difference it made in me. When I looked in the glass I thought I wos some one else.
Louis never suspected, and Maxwell sed I played my part tip-top. 'E acted square as fur as 'is fust promises went. The watch and chain wos only silver gilt, and the ring was Abyssinian gold and sham stones, but the togs wos all right, and so wos the two quid a week. I told 'im if 'e did me in the end when the job was finished, I'd make it warm for 'im.
I've come across some bad 'uns in my time, but I never come across sech a scoundrel as that Maxwell. 'E'd 'ave skinned 'is own mother if 'e could 'ave made anythink out of it and if 'e could 'ave put the skinnin' on a pal. For that's where 'e beat us—'e knew 'ow to make 'isself safe if we wos blown on. Louis wos mad on 'orse-racin', and so wos all of us, for the matter of that, but 'e took the cake. We went all over the country, whenever there wos any sport on, and yer may bet yer life we never give our own names nowhere. I think that Louis stuck to us because 'e wos mad to git back the money 'e'd lost to Maxwell and Morgan; 'e wos regularly pricked, and sometimes went for Maxwell like a mad bull. But Maxwell kep' cool; 'e only lost 'isself once, and you'll 'ear of it presently. 'E couldn't keep wot 'e won; 'e dashed it down on the race-course, and wos more orfen stone broke than not. 'E wos allus goin' to win a pot on the next race, and it never come off—never once. 'E knowed sech a lot, yer see. That's wot's the matter with most of us. We're so clever.
There wos 'ardly a night as we didn't end up with a gamble. Louis kep' on droppin' 'is money, and the more 'e dropped the closer 'e stuck to us. I dropped twice as much as 'e did, but then it made no difference to me, one way or the other. When 'im and me wos pardners agin Maxwell and Morgan, we lost four times out of five. It wos allus settled before'and if 'e wos to win or lose, and the cards wos dealt accordin'. If they'd been dealt fair 'e'd 'ave lost, but not as much. 'E reckoned 'isself the best player in the crowd, and it 'appened 'e wos the wust. A barn-door fowl wosn't in it with 'im for crowin'.