“I know Hanks is a crook and a card sharp,” he answered. “I know he has been cheating you at poker.”
“Hush!” said Dale. “Don’t speak so loud. If Merriwell should find it out——”
“Oh, I won’t blow on you, old fellow,” laughed Chester. “I’ve been there myself too many times. I can sympathize with you, my boy. I know how it feels to be skinned by a cheating poker player, but I haven’t experienced anything like that for some time. After passing through a few experiences, I decided to do the skinning myself. With that object in view I learned all the crooked tricks of the game, and since then I’ve had the satisfaction of stabbing several gentlemen who were trying to knife me. It’s disreputable business, Sparkfair. A man who gambles at cards will learn to cheat sooner or later. He has to do it or remain a sucker for the sharks to skin. You found out Jim Hanks was skinning you. It made you hot when you realized how you had been robbed. You had even put up your watch and some other valuables to raise money. Hanks had loaned you the money you wanted, and then won it back from you. When you found out he was dishonest, you boiled with indignation.”
“Boiled, sizzled, steamed, blew up,” said Dale.
“Precisely. You made up your mind that the valuables he had secured from you were still rightfully your property. You slipped into his room to see if you couldn’t find them. You didn’t find them, and this made you still hotter. You decided to take a few trinkets of his and hold them until he coughed up your own property. Unfortunately, Hank and a couple of friends dropped on you before you could get out of his room. They caught you with the goods. Now, Mr. Hanks has been blackmailing you. For some reason he’s short of money of late, and, therefore, he chased you down here, thinking it possible you might not return to college after that cinnamon-bear escapade, and feeling determined to get a last crack at you. He squeezed a hundred dollars out of you this evening under threat of exposing you before the company here. I’ve recovered that hundred, and you have it in your hand. That’s all.”
“No, it isn’t all,” said Dale. “How the dickens do you happen to know so much about this business?”
“I won’t keep you guessing any longer,” said Chet, and he told Sparkfair how it was he happened to know so much.
“But how did you get the money from him? How did you force him to give it up?”
“That was easy,” chuckled Chester. “Hanksy thinks himself clever at poker, but he has lots of tricks to learn. I’ve played the game from Fardale to Mexico. I’ve been up against all kinds of crooks, and I’ve learned some tricks never dreamed of by Hanksy. It didn’t hurt my conscience a bit to work some of those tricks on him this evening. I inveigled him into a little three-cornered game, Fred Harmford serving as the dummy most of the time. Most of the fighting was between Hanks and myself. Harmford broke about even. I had luck at the very start, for the first deal gave me a top hand over a full house by Hanks. This enabled me hastily to relieve him of about half the money you had handed over to him a short time before. That made him ugly.
“He was bound to get at me somehow, but he overstepped himself by stealing the six spot of spades from the discards. The stolen card gave him a straight flush against four eights held by me. But you see, Steele and Randall had dropped in on us, and I was able to prove that Hanks stole the card. That was his finish. He had bet his last red cent, and a few moments ago he was quietly escorted outside by Steele. He didn’t make any fuss about it, for he was afraid to do so. He’s gone, Sparkfair. You have the hush money he squeezed out of you, and you needn’t worry about being bothered by him again to-night. There’s June still waiting for you, and the orchestra is starting another waltz. So long, old chap. Enjoy yourself.”