oll onto the floor that time," said Mr. Critz apologetically.
"It most generally does for me, yet. I ain't got it down to perfection
yet. This is the way it ought to work--oh, pshaw! there she goes onto
the floor again! Went under the bed that time. Here she is! Now, the
way she ought to work is--there she goes again!"

"You got to practice that game a lot before you try it onto folks in
public, Mr. Critz," said Mr. Gubb seriously.

"Don't I know that?" said Mr. Critz rather impatiently. "Same as
you've got to practice snoopin', Mr. Gubb. Maybe you thought I didn't
know you was snoopin' after me wherever I went last night."

"Did you?" asked Mr. Gubb, with surprise plainly written on his face.

"I seen you every moment from nine P.M. till eleven!" said Mr. Critz.
"I didn't like it, neither."

"I didn't think to annoy you," apologized Mr. Gubb. "I was practicin'
Lesson Four. You wasn't supposed to know I was there at all."

"Well, I don't like it," said Mr. Critz. "'Twas all right last night,
for I didn't have nothin' important on hand, but if I'd been workin'
up a con' game, the feller I was after would have thought it mighty
strange to see a man follerin' me everywhere like that. If you went
about it quiet and unobtrusive, I wouldn't mind; but if I'd had a
customer on hand and he'd seen you it would make him nervous. He'd
think there was a--a crazy man follerin' us."

"I was just practicin'," apologized Mr. Gubb. "It won't be so bad when
I get the hang of it. We all got to be beginners sometime."

"I guess so," said Mr. Critz, rearranging the shells and the little
rubber pea. "Well, I put the pea down like this, and I dare you to bet
which shell she's goin' to be under, and you don't bet, see? So I put
the shells down, and you're willin' to bet you see me put the first
shell over the pea like this. So you keep your eye on that shell, and
I move the shells around like this--"

"She's under the same shell," said Mr. Gubb.

"Well, yes, she _is_," said Mr. Critz placidly, "but she hadn't ought
to be. By rights she ought to sort of ooze out from under whilst I'm
movin' the shells around, and I'd ought to sort of catch her in
between my fingers and hold her there so you don't see her. Then when
you say which shell she's under, she ain't under any shell; she's
between my fingers. So when you put down your money I tell you to pick
up that shell and there ain't anything under it. And before you can
pick up the other