"Lucky Baldwin's horse," said Checkers. "The odds were an easy fifty
to one. Grady second! D 'ye see, if you 'd have played him for place
as I wanted you to, we 'd have saved our stake. But you would n't
'thaw out,' and now your ticket's a souvenir. We 'd have win as it was
with a good boy up. That settles Garrison for me. There 's a jockey
that ought to be driving cows instead of riding a sprinter like Grady,
and pumping him out in the first three-quarters. Domino last! That
'good thing.' Well; I knew from the start that he was a 'lobster.'"
Murray flushed up. "Well, any way, I won on Despot for third," he
said, "enough to put me ahead on the race, and cover your losing on
Grady, Jack. But, Jove, what a harvest the bookies have reaped. There
were thousands of dollars bet on Domino and the other favorites, and
there probably were n't a dozen bets in all on Rey El Santa Anita.
It's a terrible thing this gambling, Jack, when you come to look it
square in the face. Just think of the money gone to swell the pile of
a lot of miserable gamblers, and think of the poor deluded mortals who
play this game day after day, constant in the fatuous hope of some day
making a brilliant coup, and squaring themselves on their years of
losing. Fortune 'jollies' them along with temporary small successes,
and having gained their confidence proceeds to throw them down the
harder. Disappointment, misery, embezzlement, suicide, follow it all
as effect follows cause--and still the game goes on."
"Well, anyway, I 'm glad we touched them, and we 'll take good care
that they do n't get it back. By Jove, it's nearly 4 o'clock. I 'm
afraid we ought to be going, Jack. It's a long drive in, and recollect
we have a date for dinner to-night. Come on, I 'll cash this Despot
ticket, and then we 'll make a start for home."
"Home!" exclaimed Checkers. "You're not going home? Why this is the
race I 've been waiting for. You do n't want to miss a lunch like
this. It's a puddin'; it's a tapioca. Honest, it's a regular gift;
the chance of your life to make a 'killin'."
But to all his entreaties we lent a deaf ear though he talked with a
masterful eloquence. I confess, however, to one more weakness. I gave
him a ten which he swore to return. (Murray was standing in line with
his ticket.) He said he would "play it carefully, and gradually win
himself out of the hole." I felt at the time that I was a "sucker,"
but somehow he had a persuasive way.