“Gracious, he must be treating himself,” thought Bob. “A whole ten cents spent at one time, not to say anything about the price of admission to the fair grounds. I have half a mind to follow him in and see what he has to say when we meet.”
Bob thought over the matter for a moment. Then he dropped a dime into the doorkeeper’s hand and passed inside the show-tent.
As he expected, the show—if it may be designated by that name—was the worst kind of a swindle. The bearded lady’s beard was a false one—the four-legged man had two artificial limbs, and the glass-eater ate nothing more brittle than a peculiar kind of rock candy.
Only half a dozen visitors were inside the tent, and they stared stupidly around, first at the so-called curiosities and then at one another.
Bob looked for Joel Carrow, who had inspected the “curiosities,” and was now making his way to a corner of the tent where stood a flashily-dressed man, having before him a small show-case and a box filled with envelopes.
The show-case was laden with articles of jewelry, each bearing a certain number.
“Here’s your chance to make money,” said the flashily-dressed man. “Each of the envelopes in this box contains a number, and that number can be found on some articles of jewelry in the case. The price of an envelope is only twenty-five cents, and there are no blanks. Try your luck and win the gold watch or the diamond scarf-pin, either of which is worth fifty dollars.”
Joel Carrow was interested. He did not know that none of the envelopes contained the number corresponding to the articles of any value in the case. It was true there were no blanks, but it was also true there were no prizes of a greater cash value than five cents.
“I’ll try my luck,” said Carrow, after some hesitation, and he passed over twenty-five cents.
“I think I’ll watch this,” thought Bob. “That man will try to swindle Carrow all he can.”