"The owner himself is going to 'put me next,'" he continued; "it 'll be
a 'lead-pipe.'"
I began to be interested. "I should like to know it," I replied, "and
I will wait for you after the Derby. I may not bet on it myself, but I
have a friend who doubtless will, if you will give him the information."
"I 'll give it to him if he 'll go down the line, but it's going to win
a city block, and we ought to make a killin' on it. I went broke
myself, on Senator Irby, or I 'd have gone home to-night with a
bankroll."
"Well," I replied, "we 'll see when the time comes. Now, what do you
fancy to win the Derby?"
He lighted a cigarette and puffed it a moment in silence.
"It's a dead-tough race," he at last remarked, "and I would n't play it
with counterfeit money. There 's no use in playing any race unless you
've got some information. These geezers that play every race go broke.
But it's an easy game to beat if you just stay off till you 're next to
something good, and then plug it hard. Why, if I could shake the
faro-bank and crap-game, I 'd have money to burn ice with.
"Y' see, take a big stake-race like this, where every horse is a
'cracker-jack,' they 're all of 'em good, and they 've all got a
chance, and you just take my advice and stay off. We 'll have
something good in the fourth that we know, and we just won't do a thing
to it. Well, I must hurry down to the paddocks to see a stable boy I
know; if I hear anything I 'll come back and tell you. But be sure and
be here for the next with your friend, 'cause it's all over now, but
cashing the ticket--so long;" and he dodged away through the crowd.
Oddly enough, it did not at the moment strike me as in the least
peculiar that I should have been conversing on a basis of perfect
equality with a companion of stable boys and a frequenter of gambling
hells. Nothing further.
The spirit of easy, good-natured camaraderie was in the very air; and
in the singleness of purpose which animated all--the picking of the
winner--all ranks seemed leveled, all social barriers cast aside.
Again, he had proved in our few minutes' talk a new, and to me an
interesting, type; and I resolved to keep the appointment, if for
nothing more than to study him further.
He was a young man, certainly not over twenty-three, short, slight, and
becomingly dressed. His face was thin, smooth-shaven and red, but
somehow peculiarly prepossessing. His deep blue eyes and long black
lashes might have atoned for much less attractive features; and the
lines which ran from his well-shaped nose to the corners of his clear
cut lips suggested a hard lived life which I afterwards learned did not
belie them.
A glance at my watch discovered the fact that it lacked but a few
minutes of my appointment with Murray, and I began to slowly edge my
way to the point of our rendezvous.
I reached it promptly on the minute and stood awaiting his tardy
coming, when suddenly my arm was grasped and I turned to find my new
acquaintance.
He was all excitement and breathing hard, as though in the greatest
possible hurry.
"Come here," he said in a low quick voice; and he beckoned me into a
quiet corner. "I 've been looking for you everywhere. Now listen a
minute and do n't ask questions; Domino's got a 'dickey' leg, and he
won't be a thing but last. Garrison tells me that Senator Grady is
going to win in a common canter. Richard Croker 's in the ring, and
the 'bookies' are swipin' it off the boards. Hurry and get in with
your money while there 's a chance to get the odds;" and he started
into the betting ring as though fully expecting I would follow.
His manner was intensely earnest, and his hurried words and furtive
looks were at once impressive and convincing. I felt my latent
sporting spirit rising strong again, and I began the simple process of
arguing myself out of my former position.
Some Frenchman, I think, has somewhere said, "A man is his own worst
sharper." However that is, in an argument with one's self the other
side is usually silenced. And so it chanced that, a few minutes later,
I again held a penciled ticket, which this time called for $60 to be
paid in the event of certain contingencies, and for which I had given
$20 of my former winnings. I had also given my Mentor an extra five to
bet for the boy from whom he had received such timely and valuable
information.
Such reckless plunging I can only excuse upon the grounds of having
been forced into it; for not the least of this versatile youth's many
and varied gifts was the power, not uncommon amongst waiters and
shop-keepers, of shaming his whilom client out of anything approaching
pettiness, by the assumption of that air of blended superiority and
indifference we have all felt the force of at times.
I had drawn forth my roll with the laudable intention of chancing a two
or perhaps a five, when I was met with the startling proposition that I
"bet fifty each way, to win and for place," and this was followed by so
convincing an array of figures, weights, times and distances, that a
compromise of $20 to win, and a five-dollar bet for the boy, "who could
n't leave the paddocks, but had been promised that the right thing
would be done by him," seemed the least I could do, consistent with my
dignity and self-respect.
And now to hurry back to Murray. We found him standing watch in hand,
and he began to smile when he saw my companion.
"Well! well!" he exclaimed in a bantering tone; "so you 've fallen a
prey to Checkers, have you? What loser has he touted you onto, that's
'going to win in a walk, hands down'?"
"Now, there's a guy that makes me sick," interrupted Checkers, ignoring
the question. "Because he dropped a couple of 'bones' not long ago at
the Harlem track, he made a roar that's echoing still between this and
the Rocky Mountains. The next time I saw him I gave him a 'good thing'
he could have win out on, but he would n't touch it. He don't know the
right way around the track. The book-makers call him 'Ready-Money'--he
's so easy."
"Come off now, Checkers," laughed Murray, "you know you never guess 'em
right; the only time your horses win is when the others all fall down.
But really, Jack, what did you play?"
"I 'm playing Senator Grady, Murray; our friend here told me he could
n't lose."
"Well, he may be right," said Murray thoughtfully, "but I 'm not
playing the race that way. Domino first, and Despot third, is the way
I figure it ought to come. Grady I think will get the place, but the
odds are better on Despot for third. Well, let's go up in the
grand-stand now, and see them all parade to the post."
We chanced to find a place for three, in the seats almost opposite the
judges' stand, for I had taken Checkers with me for the pleasure I
found in hearing him talk.
As yet I had n't made up my mind about Checkers, and I was anxious to
question Murray privately concerning him. He certainly did not look
like a "tout," for the meaning of the word as applied to that genus now
came to me. Rather, he seemed to be playing a fantastic role. He
played it well, I confess, but there was a whimsical air about all that
he said and did which puzzled me greatly. His slang, however, was
natural. Of that there could be no doubt, and he used it with a native
grace, a varied inflection and appositeness which made it seem a part
of him, and therefore robbed it of objection.
In fact I afterwards discovered, and I grew to know him very well, that
in all his slang there was a pertinence which took a short cut to the
gist of things; a humor, dry and sometimes broad, but never vulgar, and
seldom profane.
The bugle calling the horses to the post sounded soon after we took our
seats, and shortly they began to appear parading in order past the
grand-stand.
Domino, Dorian and Senator Grady, the three eastern horses, favorites
in the betting, were cheered as they passed to the very echo; while
others of the eight had their many supporters, who had backed their
belief with some share of their wealth, at longer and much more
interesting odds.
"There's the baby'll get the dough," said Checkers, as Senator Grady
passed. "He's the finest that ever came over the pike. How on earth
are they going to beat him?"