Although he did not know it, his math skills had caught the eye of Jackie Barron, a smooth operator whose family owned and operated Party Time Shows, an empire built on the early success of Double-O's 13-Inch Foot-Long, a 12-inch hot dog made to look longer by being served on a short bun. Jackie, a junior Mephistopheles, sees potential in his shy classmate and a suppressed hankering for life in the fast lane. He lays out plans for a basement casino, dangles a $20 bill and, without too much urging, gets Mr. Fenton to sign over his soul on the dotted line.

The casino is a rousing success. Before long, gridiron heroes tremble at the sight of Mr. Fenton, afraid to have their gambling debts called in. Mr. Fenton begins wearing blue-green iridescent sharkskin pants, fake Italian shoes with plastic soles and a white trench coat. In no time, he is ready to make his debut on the carnival midway.

In the capable hands of Jackie, Mr. Fenton learns the ropes. He learns that carnivals have a rigid class structure. At the bottom are the ride boys, who set up the merry-go-rounds and Tilt-a-Whirls. At the top are the "flatties," the fast-talking hustlers who work out of a steel-clad trailer, called a flat store, that offers valuable protection against unhappy customers. The games are many, and they are all rigged.

Marks who confidently step forward to drive a nail into a log find that the nail bends in half at the slightest tap of the hammer. Children looking for the floating duck whose painted number corresponds to a prize never seem to find it. The game operator has slipped it into a niche in a covered bridge on the waterway traveled by the ducks.

Then there's the mysterious football game in which players roll dice to move down the field, advancing rapidly at first, but, strangely enough, after investing more and more money, always getting stopped at the one-yard line. The reason is simple. The numbers on the dice can never add up to the right combination. The football moves up the field quickly at first because the carny running the game rapidly totals the dice incorrectly, in the player's favor. Later, at crunch time, he adds the numbers slowly, and correctly. Prizes, also known as the plush or the flash, generally cost less than the price charged to play a game.