as many different emergencies. Having become a
detective, he made the methods of his profession an exact science. Oscar
had not been long in the gambling den when his original suspicions were
all fully confirmed. The two men who had shadowed him to the club
entered, and our hero mentally argued:

"Those fellows certainly stick to my identity."

The detective engaged in the game. He was not a gambler--he abhorred
gambling. He had seen so many men drop down to poverty who had taken
their first step back in a gambling den, and during the course of his
career he had warned, and in some instances saved young clerks who were
just beginning to slide downward. Gambling is a fatal amusement and
sooner or later leads to disaster. Oscar, however, knew how to gamble.
He had learned the various games merely as aids in his profession, for
most criminals are inveterate gamblers, and it is in gambling dens where
detectives find their richest fields for "dead shadows."

A few moments after Oscar had gotten into the game one of the men who
were shadowing him also got in. It proved to be a very commonplace play.
No large bets were made, no great sums were lost or won. The shadower
had managed to crowd in beside our hero, and Oscar had favored him in
securing the seat, and as was expected the man opened a conversation.

"A slow game," he said.

"Very," answered our hero laconically.

"I don't like this faro anyhow," said the man.

"It passes time."

"I prefer a good game of draw."

Oscar detected that the man was just playing a good game of _draw_--he
was trying to _draw_ our hero into a private little game of draw-poker;
but it was not the poker that he wanted to inaugurate. His game was to
draw our hero to some convenient place where he could play a still more
significant game of _draw_.

"I like a game of draw myself," said Oscar, nowise loath to favor the
man's game.

The detective did not know where it was all leading to, or what it was
leading up to as a final denouement, but he was inured to the taking of
desperate chances. Peril was a pastime to him. He was ever watchful and
always prepared for danger.

"I think I've seen you before," said the man.

"Where?"

"I can't recall; possibly in some club."

Our hero had detected that he was dealing with a very smart man--a man
of nerve and coolness--a man who went slow but sure. He also discerned
that it was to be a play of skill and experience in roguery against
exper