THE CANTERBURY PUZZLES
and then the second player moves both pigs one square each; and so
on, in turns, until Hendrick catches one hog and Katriin the
other.
This you will find would be absurdly easy if the hogs moved first,
but this is just what Dutch pigs will not do.
79.—The Thirty-one Game.
This is a game that used to be (and may be to this day, for aught
I know) a favourite means of swindling employed by cardsharpers at
racecourses and in railway-carriages.
As, on its own merits, however,
the game is particularly interesting,
I will make no apology for presenting
it to my readers.
The cardsharper lays down the
twenty-four cards shown in the illus-
tration, and invites the innocent way-
farer to try his luck 01 skill by seeing
which of them can first score thirty-"
one, or drive his opponent beyond,
in the following manner :
One player turns down a card, say
a 2, and counts " two " ; the second
player turns down a card, say a 5,
and, adding this to the score, counts
" seven " ; the first player turns down
another card, say a 1, and counts
" eight" ; and so the play proceeds
alternately until one of them scores
the " thirty-one," and so wins.
Now, the question is, in order to win, should you turn down the
first card, or courteously request your opponent to do so ? And
how should you conduct your play ? The reader will perhaps say :
"Oh, that is easy enough. You must play first, and turn down a
3 ; then, whatever your opponent does, he cannot stop your making
96
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