The results were astonishing.
In my ignorance I delivered the balls in apparently every way except the right one; but no matter--during half an hour I never started a ball down the alley that didn't score a ten-strike, every time, at the other end.

The others lost their grip early, and their joy along with it.

Now and then one of them got a ten-strike, but the occurrence was so rare that it made no show alongside of my giant score.

The boys surrendered at the end of the half-hour, and put on their coats and gathered around me and in courteous, but sufficiently definite, language expressed their opinion of an experience-worn and seasoned expert who would stoop to lying and deception in order to rob kind and well-meaning friends who had put their trust in him under the delusion that he was an honest and honorable person.

I was not able to convince them that I had not lied, for now my character was gone, and they refused to attach any value to anything I said.