And he spoke the truth.
“The game is strong enough without it,” smiled Kendall, over whom, as over all, Moses Flood seemed to exercise a strangely magnetic influence.
The latter made no reply, but took from the same drawer a deck of cards bound with a rubber, which he deliberately removed and threw to the floor. They were well seasoned, and of a rare and expensive quality, and unique design. They were of the kind known as “crazy backs.”
Nick Carter recognized them the moment his gaze lighted on them. He leaned nearer to Chick and whispered quietly:
“I begin to suspect what’s coming off here, Chick. That’s a brace box, for a hundred.”
“The dickens! Do you think so?”
“I do, indeed. And that deck of cards he has just brought up, Chick, is a deck of strippers.”
“What are strippers, Nick?”
“Cards used for dealing one kind of a brace game,” whispered Nick. “They are cut just the least bit wider at one end than the other. The narrow ends of the cards forming the middle of the layout are turned one way in shuffling, and those comprising the ends of the layout are turned the other.”
“What’s the idea of that?”