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Updated: May 10, 2025
"I was a fellow-traveller, on the steamship, with Sparrow MacCoy, and at least I had the satisfaction of spoiling his little game for the voyage. The very first night I went into the smoking-room, and found him at the head of a card-table, with a half a dozen young fellows who were carrying their full purses and their empty skulls over to Europe.
And then, as my wits gradually returned, I began to realize also that I could do nothing against MacCoy which would not recoil upon my mother and myself. How could we convict him without a full account of my brother's career being made public the very thing which of all others we wished to avoid?
But MacCoy saw my advantage also, and was determined that I should not pursue it. "'He's my pard, and you shall not bully him, he cried. "'He's my brother, and you shall not ruin him, said I. 'I believe a spell of prison is the very best way of keeping you apart, and you shall have it, or it will be no fault of mine.
When I came to myself I was lying among some low bushes, not far from the railroad track, and somebody was bathing my head with a wet handkerchief. It was Sparrow MacCoy. "'I guess I couldn't leave you, said he. 'I didn't want to have the blood of two of you on my hands in one day.
At that moment, just as the train was moving off, the door of my compartment was flung open, and there were MacCoy and my brother on the platform. "They were both disguised, and with good reason, for they knew that the London police were after them. MacCoy had a great astrakhan collar drawn up, so that only his eyes and nose were showing.
He was settling down for his harvest, and a rich one it would have been. But I soon changed all that. "'Gentlemen, said I, 'are you aware whom you are playing with? "'What's that to you? You mind your own business! said he, with an oath. "'Who is it, anyway? asked one of the dudes. "'He's Sparrow MacCoy, the most notorious card-sharper in the States.
Taking that, in connection with the recent frauds at the hotels, the police might have got hold of one end of the string. "I don't think there is much more for me to explain. We got to a village called Amersham that night in the character of two gentlemen upon a walking tour, and afterwards we made our way quietly to London, whence MacCoy went on to Cairo and I returned to New York.
The next thing I heard there had been a scandal at one of the Northumberland Avenue hotels: a traveller had been fleeced of a large sum by two confederate card-sharpers, and the matter was in the hands of Scotland Yard. The first I learned of it was in the evening paper, and I was at once certain that my brother and MacCoy were back at their old games. I hurried at once to Edward's lodgings.
He had formed a friendship with Sparrow MacCoy, who was at the head of his profession as a bunco-steerer, green goodsman and general rascal. They took to card-sharping, and frequented some of the best hotels in New York. And then one day he dressed himself as a girl, and he carried it off so well, and made himself such a valuable decoy, that it was their favourite game afterwards.
So at last he gave in, and he made me a solemn promise that he would see Sparrow MacCoy no more, that he would go to Europe, and that he would turn his hand to any honest trade that I helped him to get.
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