at's the simplest of all! See!" And it was done.
"You two had better come to an understanding with us or you'll not
shine to-night. How about a game of Don?"

Lemon and Arnold agreed, but they had barely begun before Curtis cried
out, "It's no use, Lemon, I can see those deuces up your sleeve.
You've some up yours, too, Arnold--the deuce of clubs and the deuce of
hearts. Moreover, you can tell our cards by notches and thumb smears
on the backs. I'll show you how." He told the cards correctly--there
was no gainsaying it. The men were overwhelmed.

"What are you, anyway?" Lemon asked; "tecs?"

"Never mind what we are!" Curtis said savagely. "We know what you
are--and that's where the rub comes in. Now what are you going to pay
us to hold our tongues?"

"Pay you!" Lemon hissed. "Why, damn you--nothing. We're not bankers.
All we've got to do is clear out and try somewhere else."

"That might not be so easy as you imagine," Hamar interposed. "We
would make it our business to have a scene first. Why not come to
terms? We'll not be over exorbitant--and consider the convenience of
not having to shift your quarters."

"Well, of all the blooming frousts I've struck, none beats this,"
Lemon said. "Fancy being pipped by a couple of suckers like these.
Farmers, indeed! Why don't you call yourselves parsons? How much do
you want?"

After a prolonged haggling, Hamar and Curtis agreed to take fifty
dollars; and, considering their penniless condition, they were by no
means dissatisfied with their bargain.

They were now ready to go, and looking round for Kelson, found him
engaged in a desperate _tete-a-tete_ with the young lady at the bar,
who, despite her avowed lack of faith in mankind, counted half the
room her friends. She promised Kelson that she would meet him at eight
o'clock that evening; but as both she and he were quite used to making
such promises and subsequently forgetting all about them, their
rencontre resulted in only one thing, namely, in furnishing the three
allies with the nucleus of the big fortune they intended making.

On finding themselves outside the dive Hamar, Curtis and Kelson first
of all divided the spoil. They then went to a clothes depot and rigged
themselves out in fashionably cut garments; after which they took
rooms at a presentable hotel in Kearney Street, next door to Knobble's
boot store. Then, dressed for the first time in their lives like Nob
Hill dukes, they paraded the pet resorts of t