"

Amos agreeing, the two boys, with extra care for rattling twigs, moved
stealthily up the banks of the Potomac that rose with increasing
steepness. The men, who were huddled near their fire now, came
directly into their view below, and Chris and Amos could see that they
were playing cards. One seemed to be losing to the other two. He had
piled a heap of his small possessions in front of him on the sand, in
lieu of money.

[Illustration]

They were certainly a villainous-looking trio. The boys could hear
some of their exclamations, and it was with a mingled feeling of
curiosity and uneasiness that Chris recognized the losing gambler to
be Simon Gosler, the humpbacked cripple.

"Come now, Gosler!" they heard one of the men cry out in annoyance,
"Pay up--you've lost!"

"I've no money to pay you," complained the sly voice of the cripple.
"I'm a poor man--well you know it. A cripple--just a poor old
cripple!"

"Ah--none o' that!" cut in the second winner. "We know how well you do
at your begging--more in a day than we get in a month's pay. Pay up
now, or it won't go well with you," he rasped out, laying his hand on
a dagger stuck into his belt.

"What about your glass, your spyglass, Gosler?" urged the first man.
"Put that up and it will cover your losses well enough!" he sneered,
but Simon Gosler hugged his coat to him and looked from side to side
searching for a way of escape.

"No, no, good fellows," he moaned, "not my glass. I won that from the
Captain himself three years ago, and that I never shall part from
willingly."

"You'd part from it for silver quick enough!" snarled the first
gambler, "and of that you must have plenty, for 'tis rare you ever
lose. Come now, we'll give you a few minutes more to make up your
mind, but make it up you must. Either the glass or silver, you may
choose."

The two gamblers rose menacingly and moved away to put their boat into
the stream. Simon Gosler was left mumbling and sniveling and fingering
his coat pocket, in which he kept his glass. Chris, watching him, had
a sudden inspiration and whispered to Amos. "Hide here behind those
bushes and don't follow me. Don't move or show yourself. I'm going to
have that glass."

So saying he moved carefully back until he was out of sight of Amos,
and then, for the first time on his own, he tried a change of shape.
Choosing a broad flat stone at the edge of the shrubbery and safely
removed from the sight of the two winners, he ch