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f this . . . don't whisper it to your carpet-bag till you've seen me again. I say this honestly, (!) with a view to doing my best for you.' What this best is presently appears. I need not follow the workings of the plot, nor tell the end of the story. All that answers my present purpose is to indicate the nature of the ' book' which the gentlemanly Dallison, Silky Dallison as his friends call him, succeeds in
making for himself and his equally gentlemanly friend on the strength of the ' tip' given by the latter. ' We now stand to win between us 10,170/. if Coriander wins the Two Thousand, and just quits if he loses; not a bad book, Grenville!' To which Grenville, nothing loathe, responds, 'By Jove! no.' Yet every wager by which this result has been obtained, if rightly considered, was as certainly a fraud as a wager laid upon a throw with cogged dice. For, what makes wagers on such throws unfair, except the knowledge that with such. dice a certain result is more likely than any other ? and what essential difference is there between such knowledge about dice and special knowledge about a horse's chance in a race ? The doctrine may not be pleasant to sporting gentlemen who have not considered the matter, but once duly considered there cannot be a doubt as to its truth: a wager made with an opponent who does not possess equally accurate information about the chances involved, is not a fair wager but a fraud. It is a fraud of the same kind as that committed by a man who wagers after the race, knowing what the event of the race has been; and it only differs from such a fraud in degree in the same sense that robbing a till differs from robbing a bank.
It may be argued that by the same reasoning good whist players defraud inferior players who play with them for equal stakes. But the cases are altogether different. Good whist players do not conceal their strength. Their skill is known; and if inferior players choose to play on equal terms, trusting in good luck to .befriend them, they do it at their own risk. If a
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