"Hoker, come here and search me. If you find the jack of hearts anywhere on me the Chinaman wins. If you don't find it I win."
"Lat light," said Hop, nodding to the boss of the place.
Hoker came forward and proceeded to go through the man's pockets.
He did not find the card in any of the pockets, so he went on down and tried the boot-tops.
Then it was that he pulled out a card from one of them.
"Here she is, Cap!" he exclaimed, as he arose and held out the card so all could see it. "Here's ther jack of hearts!"
"Tricked, by thunder!" exclaimed Roche, as Hop smiled and put the money in his pocket.
"Mighty clever, I should say," ventured Sedgwick. "Cap, yer shouldn't have bet."
"I couldn't help it," was the reply. "But I know how it was done. He put the card in my bootleg when he was looking around under the table."
"No; that couldn't be," declared the saloon keeper. "He put ther card in ther pack after that. An' I'll swear that he wasn't near enough ter put it on you after that, even if he had it in his hand."