EBOOK THE NEST EGG ***
Produced by David Widger
CAPTAINS ALL
By W.W. Jacobs
THE NEST EGG
[Illustration: "The Nest Egg."]
"Artfulness," said the night-watch-man, smoking placidly, "is a gift; but
it don't pay always. I've met some artful ones in my time--plenty of
'em; but I can't truthfully say as 'ow any of them was the better for
meeting me."
He rose slowly from the packing-case on which he had been sitting and,
stamping down the point of a rusty nail with his heel, resumed his seat,
remarking that he had endured it for some time under the impression that
it was only a splinter.
"I've surprised more than one in my time," he continued, slowly. "When I
met one of these 'ere artful ones I used fust of all to pretend to be
more stupid than wot I really am."
He stopped and stared fixedly.
"More stupid than I looked," he said. He stopped again.
"More stupid than wot they thought I looked," he said, speaking with
marked deliberation. And I'd let 'em go on and on until I thought I had
'ad about enough, and then turn round on 'em. Nobody ever got the better
o' me except my wife, and that was only before we was married.
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