Charteris, Leslie by The Saint to the Rescue

Author:The Saint to the Rescue
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-09-30T22:50:34.984000+00:00

painted on both sides. The second has the identical character on one side only. And the

third is blank on both sides. Instead of Chinese characters, we just made an X with a

pencil, the way I've marked these."

The connoisseur of hazards was already moving over to the table.

"Okay, what's the game?"

"Well, you drop the three chips into a bag, or a box—or a hat." Simon did that. "You shake 'em up under the table, where nobody can see what happens to them. Then if it's

your turn, you pick out any one of 'em, with out looking. Go on, you try it. You take it

out and slam it on the table, so that anyone can see what's on the top side—whether it's

marked or not—but nobody knows what's on the under side. Then you try to guess what's

underneath, an X or nothing."

Mr. Way thoughtfully turned over the chip he had put down. Simon spilled out the

other two beside it. The little man picked them up and examined them. A newcomer would

have wondered why anyone ever called him Loud Mouth.

"Here's how this chap explained it to me," said the Saint, reaching for his pen and a handy piece of ash-tray advertising. "And it might help you to visualize it quicker. Let's pretend we can see both sides of these chips at once. I'll draw both sides of each chip and tie them

together. Here's the one with a cross on both sides, for a start. . . ."

He drew it, followed by two similarly attenuated dumbbells.

". . . an d the one with a c ross on one side only,

and the double-blank. Now, as this

chap says first, anyone can see there are three crosses and three blanks, altogether, so if

you just shut your eyes and guessed what side was down— or up, for that matter—you'd

have an even chance."

"Yeah, if you're guessing—"

"But suppose you're looking. Suppose the chip on the table shows a cross. Then you know

it can only be one of these first two, don't you? In other words, the under side is either a

cross—or a blank. An even chance. . . . On the other hand, if the side that's up is blank,

you know the chip must be one of these second two. So the bottom either has a cross

--or it doesn't. Again, it's fifty-fifty. Or it seems to be."

"What d'ya mean, it seems?"

"Well, that's what was bothering me. Because when I was doing the guessing, I was right

about half the time. But this other chap guessed right much more often than not. I lost

quite a packet playing with him. So I've started wondering if I was unlucky, or whether

there's so me trick to it that I haven't seen. I'm sure that the crosses were all exactly alike, and there was nothing on the chips that you could find by feeling them—I thought of that.

And the way we played, he couldn't have done any sleight of hand. But if it's legitimate, why go through such a complicated business to set up an even chance?"

Mr.

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