They drink and play, and fill their grog again.

The Countryman bets; if he loses, he is called upon to pay; if he wins, 'tis added to what is coming to him out of the purse.
"If, after an experiment or two, they find he has but little money, or fight shy, they bolt, that is, brush off in quick time, leaving him to answer for the reckoning.

But if he is what they term well-breeched, and full of cash, they stick to him until he is cleaned out,{2} make him drunk, and, if he turns restive, they mill him.

If he should be an easy cove,{3} he perhaps give them change for their flash notes, or counterfeit coin, and they leave him as soon as possible, highly pleased with his fancied success, while they laugh in their sleeves at the dupe of their artifice." "And is it possible ?" inquired Tallyho-- "Can such things be, and overcome us Like a summer's cloud ?" "Not without our special wonder," continued Dashall; "but such things have been practised.

Then again, your ring-droppers, or practisers of the fawney rig, are more cunning in their manoeuvres to turn their wares into the ready blunt.{4} The pretending to find a ring being one of the meanest and least profitable exercises of their ingenuity, it forms a part of their art to find articles of much more 1 Flash-screens or Fleet-notes--Forged notes.
2 Cleaned out--Having lost all your money.
3 Easy cove--One whom there is no difficulty in gulling.
4 Ready blunt--Cash in hand.
~361~~ value, such as rich jewelry, broaches, ear-rings, necklaces set with diamonds, pearls, &c.