Old Specie, the Treasury Detective; or, The Harbor Lights of New York — page 22: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

eae OLD SPECIE. Twice he was overhauled by some one and famil- iarly ereeted. On each occasion he whispered something in the ear of the man that caused him to give one look of horror at the countryman and then vanish in the crowd. A third fellow tried the game. They seemed as thick as sand flies on this fine afternoon, Old Specie was getting tired, and concluded to take this fellow in out of the cold, just for the sake of variety. Acting under this impulse he fell headlong into the bunco man’s trap. Presently the first fellow’s comrade came up, in- troduced himself as the son of the banker in the town Old Specie had announced as his place of residence. In ten minutes they were span lietip along in ani- mated discussion. The old veteran played his cards well. He pretended to make out that he was a wonder- fully sharp individual, and spoke of a friend of his who had been swindled when paying a visit to the metropolis. “Them fellers would have to-.cut their eye-teeth before they got ahead of me,” he boasted, and his new found friend declared it was his private opin- ion no set of sharpers lived who could get ahead of the other. The pretended farmer spoke of the green-goods swindle, and declared he was just spoiling to have a go at the rascals—that he had a wad of five hundred dollars hidden on his person, and he meant before ‘he left town to try and hunt up some of that ilk, COmMmICchoo cS =| co