Sam allowed that he himself was an uncurried wild horse from the great
desert; that he was all wool and a yard wide; that he could lick his
fighting weight in wild cats; and bet on anything he fancied till the
cows came home with their tails between their legs. And all the time he
drank: he would drink with anybody, and anybody might drink with him.
This was no piking game, for the three students of get-it-in-big-wads
had declared for a coup that would cause Walla Walla to stand up on its
hind legs and howl.
Of course Snaky Dick and his clique cast covetous eyes on the bank roll
that Texas showed an inkling of when he flashed his gold. That Texas had
a horse was the key to the whole situation: a horse that he was
never tired of describing as the king-pin cow-pony from Kalamazoo to
Kamschatka; a spring-heeled antelope that could run rings around any
cayuse that had ever looked through a halter.
But Snaky Dick went slow. Some night when Texas was full of hop he'd
rush him for a match. Indeed the Clatawa crowd had the money ready
to plunk down when the psychological pitch of Sam's Dutch courage had
arrived.
It was all going swimmingly, both ends of Walla Walla being played
against the middle, so to speak, when the "unknown quantity" drifted
into the game.
A tall, lithe man, with small placid gray eyes set in a tanned face,
rode up out of the sage brush astride a buckskin horse on his way to
Walla Walla. He looked like a casual cow-puncher riding into town
with the laudable purpose of tying the faro outfit hoof and horn, and,
incidentally, showing what could be done to a bar when a man was in
earnest and had the mazuma.
As the buckskin leisurely loped down the trail-road that ran from the
cavalry barracks to the heart of Walla Walla, his rider became aware of
turmoil in the suburbs. In front of a neat little cottage, the windows
of which held flowers partly shrouded by lace curtains, a lathy
individual, standing beside a rakish black horse, was orating with
Bacchanalian vehemence. Gathered from his blasphemous narrative he knew
chronologically the past history of a small pretty woman with peroxided
hair, who stood in the open door. He must have enlarged on the
sophistication of her past life, for the little lady, with a crisp oath,
called the declaimer a liar and a seven-times misplaced offspring.
The rider of the buckskin checked his horse, threw his right leg loosely
over the saddle, and restfully contemplated the exciting film.
The irate and also inebriated man knew that he had drawn on his
imagination, but to be told in plain words that he was a liar peeved
him. With an ugly oath he swung his quirt and sprang forward, as if he
would bring its lash down on the décolletéd shoulders of the woman.
At that instant something that looked like a boy shot through the door
as though thrust from a catapult, and landed, head on, in the bread
basket of the cantankerous one, carrying him off his feet.
The man on the buckskin chuckled, and slipped to the ground.
But the boy had shot his bolt, so to speak; the big man he had tumbled
so neatly, soon turned him, and, rising, was about to drive a boot into
the little fellow's rib. I say about to, for just then certain fingers
of steel twined themselves in his red neckerchief, he was yanked volte
face, and a fist drove into his midriff.
Of course his animosity switched to the newcomer; but as he essayed a
grapple the driving fist caught him quite neatly on the northeast corner
of his jaw. He sat down, the goggle stare in his eyes suggesting that he
contemplated a trip to dreamland.
The little woman now darted forward, crying in a voice whose
gladsomeness swam in tears: "Bulldog Carney! You always man--you beaut!"
She would have twined her arms about Bulldog, but the placid gray eyes,
so full of quiet aloofness, checked her.
But the man's voice was soft and gentle as he said: "The same Bulldog,
Molly, girl. Glad I happened along."
He turned to the quarrelsome one who had staggered to his feet: "You
ride away before I get cross; you smell like the corpse of a dead
booze-fighter!"
The man addressed looked into the gray eyes switched on his own for
inspection; then he turned, mounted the black, and throwing over his
shoulder, "I'll get you for this, Mister Butter-in!" rode away.
The other party to the rough-and-tumble, winded, had erected his five
feet of length, and with a palm pressed against his chest was emiting
between wheezy coughs picturesque words of ecomium upon Bulldog, not
without derogatory reflections upon the man who had ridden away.
In the midst of this vocal cocktail he broke off suddenly to exclaim in
astonishment:
"Holy Gawd!"
Then he scuttled past Carney, slipped a finger through the ring of the
buckskin's snaffle and peered into the horse's face as if he had found a
long-lost friend.
Perhaps the buckskin remembered him too, for he pressed a velvet,
mouse-colored muzzle against the lad's cheek and whispered something.
The little man ran a hand up and down the horse's canon-bones with the
inquisitiveness of a blind man reading raised print.
Then he turned to Carney who had been chatting with Molly--in full
dignity of Walla Walla nomenclature Molly B'Damn--and asked: "Where the
hell d'you get Waster?"
A faint smile twitched the owner's tawny mustache, chased away by a
little cloud of anger, for in that land of many horse stealings to ask
a man how he had come by his horse savoured of discourtesy. But it was
only a little wizen-faced, flat-chested friend of Molly B'Damn's; so
Carney smiled again, and answered by asking:
"Gentle-voiced kidaloona, explain what you mean by the Waster. That chum
of mine's name is Pat--Patsy boy, often enough."
"Pat nothin'! nor Percy, nor Willie; he's just plain old Waster that I
won the Ranch Stakes on in Butte, four years ago."
"Guess again, kid," Carney suggested.
"Holy Mike! Say, boss, if you could think like you can punch you'd be
all right. That's Waster. Listen, Mister Cowboy, while I tell you 'bout
his friends and relatives. He's by Gambler's Money out of Scotch Lassie,
whose breedin' runs back to Prince Charlie: Gambler's Money was by
Counterfeit, he by Spendthrift, and Spendthrift's sire was imported
Australian, whose grandsire was the English horse, Melbourne. D'you get
that, sage-brush rider?"
"I hear sounds. Tinkle again, little man."
Molly laughed, her white teeth and honest blue eyes discounting the
chemically yellow hair until the face looked good.
The little man stretched out an arm, at the end of it a thin finger
levelled at the buckskin's head: "Have you _ever_ took notice of them
lop ears?"
"Once--which was continuous."
"And you thought there was a jackass strain in him, eh?"
"Pat looked good to me all the time, ears and all."
"Well, them sloppy listeners are a throw-back to Melbourne, he was like
that. I've read he was a mean-lookin' cuss, with weak knees; but he
was all horse: and ain't Waster got bad knees? And don't he get
that buckskin from Spendthrift who was a chestnut, same's his dad,
Australian?" This seemed a direct query for he broke off to cough.
"Go on, lad----"
"Excuse me, sorry"--Molly was speaking--"this is Billy MacKay. My old
school chum, Bessie, his sister, wished him on me a month ago to see
what God's country could do for that busted chest."
The little man was impatient over the switch to himself--the horse was
the thing.
"If it wasn't for them dicky forelegs--Gawd! what a horse Waster'd been.
And if his owner, Leatherhead Mike Doyle, had kept the weight offen
him he'd've stood up anyway, for he was the truest thing. Say,
Bulldog,--don't mind me, I like that name, it talks good,--Waster didn't
need no blinkers he didn't need no spurs; he didn't need no whip--I'd
as lief hit a child with the bud as hit him. He'd just break his hear
tryin'. Waster was Leather-head's meal ticket, dicky knees and all, till
he threw a splint. It was the weight that broke him down; a hundred and
thirty-six pounds the handicapper give him in the Gold Range Stakes at
a mile and a quarter; at that he was leadin' into the stretch and
finished, fightin', on three legs. He was beat, of course; and
Leatherhead was broke, and I never see Waster again. A trombone player
in a beer garden would have known the little cuss with them hot-jointed
knees couldn't pack weight, and would 've scratched him."
Carney put a hand caressingly on Jockey Mackay's shoulder, saying: "You
stand pat with me, kid--your heart is about human, I guess. What was
that hostile person's game?"
Molly explained with a certain amount of asperity:
"He comes here to-day, Bulldog--Well, you know----"
Carney nodded placidly.
"He'd seen me down in the Del Monte joint, and thought--well, he was
filled up on Chinese rum. He wasn't none too much like a man in anything
he said or done, but I was standin' for him so long as he don't get
plumb Injun."
"Injun? Cripes! An Injun's a drugstore gent compared to that stiff,
Slimy Red," Billy objected.
"Yes, that's what started it, Bulldog,--Billy knew him."
"Knew him--huh! Slimy Red was the crookedest rider that ever throwed
a leg over a horse. He used to give his own father the wrong steer and
laugh when the old man's money was burnt up on a horse that finished in
the ruck."
"He comes in here palmin' off the moniker of Texas Sam, a big ranch
guy that sees blood on the moon when he's out for a time," Molly helped
with.
"I didn't know him at first," the little man admitted, "his face bein'
a garden of black alfalfa, till I sees that the crop is red for half
an inch above the surface where it had pushed through the dye. Then he
says, 'I'll bet my left eye agin' your big toe,' and I'm on, for that's
a great sayin' with Slimy Red Smith--he was Slimy Red hisself. And
politely, not givin' the game away, but callin' him 'Texas,' I suggests
that me and Molly is goin' to sing hymns for a bit, and that he'd best
push on."
"Soon's Billy warbles, 'Good-bye, stranger,'" Molly laughed, "this Texas
person goes up in the air. Well, you see the finish, Bulldog."
The little man had wrestled a coughing spell into subjection and
with apparent inconsistency asked, "Did you ever hear of it rainin'
bullfrogs, Mr. Carney?"
Carney nodded, a suspicion flashing upon him that the weak chest was
twin brother to a weak brain in Billy the Jock.
"Well, it's been rainin' discard race-horses about Walla Walla."
"Much of a storm?"
"They're comin' kind of thick. There's yours, Waster, and Slimy Red has
got Ding Dong; he's out of Weddin' Bells by Tambourine."
"Are you in a hurry, Bulldog?" Molly asked, fancying that Carney's
well-known courtesy was perhaps the father of his apparent interest.
"I was, Molly, till I saw you," he answered graciously, a gentle smile
lighting up his stern features.
"Oh, you gentleman knight of the road--always the silver-tongued
Bulldog. There's a bottle inside with a gold necktie on it, waitin' for
a real man to pull the cork. Come on, kid Billy."
The boy looked at Carney, and the latter said;
"It's been a full moon since I pattered with anybody about anything but
fat pork and sundown. We'll accept the little lady's invitation."
"I can give Waster four quarts of oats, Mr. Carney; I've been ridin' in
the way of a cure."
Carney laughed. "You're a sure little bit of all right, kid; the horse
first when it comes to grub--that's me; but I'll feed Pat when he's
bedded for the night."
Inside the cottage Molly and Bulldog jaunted back over the life trail
upon which they had met at different times and in divers places.
But Jockey Mackay had been thrown back into his life's environment at
sight of Waster. He was as full of racing as the wine bottle was full of
bubbles; like the wine he effervesced.
"You been here in Walla Walla before?" he asked Carney, breaking in on
the memory of a funny something that had happened when Molly and Bulldog
were both in Denver.
"Some time since," Carney replied.
"D'you know about Clatawa?"
"Is it a mine or a cocktail, Billy?"
"Clatawa's a horse."
"I might have known," Carney murmured resignedly.
Then the little man narrated of Clatawa, and the fatuous belief Walla
Walla held that a horse with cold blood in his veins could gallop fast
enough to keep himself warm. He waxed indignant over this, declaring
that boneheads that held such crazy ideas ought to be bled white, that
is in a monetary way.
Carney, being a Chevalier d'industrie, had a keen nose for oblique
enterprises, but up to the present he had enjoyed the little man's
chatter simply because he loved horses himself; but at this, the Clatawa
disease, He pricked his ears.
"What is your unsavory acquaintance, Slimy Red, doing here with Ding
Dong?" he asked.
A cunning smile twisted the lad's bluish lips as he lighted a cigarette.
"Slimy Red is padded," he vouchsafed after a puff at the cigarette.
"Padded!" Molly exclaimed, her blue eyes rounding.
"Sure thing. That herrin' gut can ride at a hundred and twenty pounds.
He's a steeplechase jock, gener'ly, though he's good on the flat, too.
He's got a couple of sweaters on under that corduroy jacket to make him
look big."
Carney laughed. "That explains something. When I pushed my fist against
his stomach I thought it had gone clean through--it sank to the wrist;
it was just as though I had punched a bag of feathers."
"But the upper cut was all right, Mr. Carney; it was a lallapaloosa."
"Why all the clothes?" Molly asked.
"I've been dopin' it out," the boy answered. "It's all match races here,
catch weights; there ain't one of them could ride a flat car without
givin' it the slows, but they know what weight is in a race; they
know you can pile enough on to bring a cart horse and a winner of the
Brooklyn Handicap together."
"I see," Carney said contemplatively; "Slimy Red, if he makes a match,
figures to get a big pull in the weights."
"Sure thing, Mike; Walla Walla will bet the family plate on Clatawa;
they'll go down hook, line, and sinker, and then some. They'll fall for
the clothes and think Slimy weighs a hundred and seventy. D'you get it?"
"Fancy I do," Carney chuckled. "The avaricious Mister Red is probably
here on a missionary venture; he aims to separate these godless ones
from the root of evil through having a trained thoroughbred, and an
ample pull in the weight."
"Now you're talkin'," Jockey Mackay declared. Then he relapsed into
a meditative silence, sipping his wine as he correlated several
possibilities suggested by the rainfall of racing horses in Walla Walla.
Carney and Molly drifted into desultory talk again.
After a time Billy spoke.
"It ain't on the cards that a lot of money is comin' to Slimy Red--he
don't deserve it; he ought to be trimmed hisself."
"He sure ought," Molly corroborated.
"Hell!" the little man exclaimed; "nobody could never trim Red, 'cause
he never had nothin'. I got it! Somebody in Walla Walla is the angel;
and Red'll get a rakeoff. He don't own Ding Dong; he couldn't own a lead
pad; booze gets his."
"Billy," Molly's face went serious; "I can guess it in once--Iron
Jaw! Oh, gee! I've been blind. Iron Jaw, and Snaggle Tooth, and
Death-on-the-trail ain't men to cotton to a coot like Slimy Red; they're
gamblers, and don't stand for anything that ain't a man, only just while
they take his roll. They've been nursin' this four-flusher. It's been,
'Hello, Texas!' and 'Have a drink, Texas.' I've got it."
"Fancy you have, Molly," Bulldog submitted. "Gawd! that's the
combination," Billy declared. "I was right."
"And Iron Jaw has got a down on Snaky Dick that owns Clatawa over some
bad splits in bets," Molly added.
"The old game," Carney laughed. "When thieves fall out honest men win a
bet. It would appear from the evidence that Iron Jaw Blake--I know his
method of old--has sent out and got some one to ship in a horse and
rider to trim Clatawa, and turn an honest penny."
"You're gettin' warm, Bulldog, as we used to say in that child's game,"
Molly declared. "I know the pippin; one Reilly, at Portland. I heard
Iron Jaw and this Texas talkin' about him."
Carney turned toward the little man. "What are we going to do about it,
Billy--do we draw cards?"
Billy sprang from his chair, and paced the floor excitedly. "Holy Mike!
there never was such a chance. Waster can trim Ding Dong to a certainty
at a mile and a quarter. See, Bulldog, that's his distance; he's a
stayer from Stayville; but he can't pack weight--don't forget that. If
you rode him--let's see----"
The little man stood back and eyed critically the tall package of bone
and muscle, that while it suggested no surplus flesh, would weigh well.
"You're a hundred and seventy-five pounds, and you ride in one of 'em
rockin' chairs that'll tip the beam at forty pounds. What chance? Slimy
'll have a five-pound saddle; he could weigh in, saddle and all, a
hundred and twenty-five. You'd be takin' on a handicap of ninety pounds.
What chance?"
"I might get an Indian boy," Carney suggested. "You might get a doll or
a pet monkey," Billy sneered. "What chance?"
"And they all work for Iron Jaw," Molly advised; "they'd blow; he'd
bribe them to pull the horse."
"What chance?" Billy repeated with the mournful persistency of a parrot.
"Guess I'll go out and tell Waster to forget he's a gentleman and go on
pluggin' among the sage brush as a cow-pony." Carney rose when Billy had
gone, saying, "Fancy I'll drift on to the rest joint, Molly. I rather
want to hold converse with a certain man while the seeing's good, if
he's about."
"Good-bye, Bulldog," Molly answered, and her blue eyes followed the
figure that slipped so gracefully through the door, their depths
holding a look that was beautiful in its honest admiration. "God!" she
whispered; "why do women like him--gee!" Billy was tickling a lop ear on
the buckskin. "Mr. Carney," he said in a low voice, one eye on the cabin
door, "you heard what Molly said about Bessie wishin' me on her, didn't
you?"
"Uh-huh!"
"Let me give you the straight info. Molly sent the money to Bessie
to bring me here; we was both broke. Then I found out Bessie had been
gettin' it for a year from her, 'cause I was sick and couldn't ride. I
hadn't saved none, thinkin' I'd got Rockefeller skinned to death as a
money-getter. It was the wastin' to make weight that got me. I don't
have to sweat off flesh now," he added pathetically; "I'm a hundred and
two."
"That's Molly Bur-dan" (her right name) "all over--I know her. But don't
worry kid. I haven't got anybody to look after, and having money and no
use for it makes me lonesome. You give me Bessie's address, and don't
tout off Molly that you're doing it."
"I can get the money myself, Mr. Carney--you just listen now. I didn't
spring it inside 'cause Molly'd get hot under the collar; she'd say
that if I rode in a race I'd bust a lung. Gee! ridin' to me is just like
goin' by-bye in a hammock; it'd do me good."
Carney put a hand gently on the boy's shoulder, saying: "The size of the
package doesn't mean much when it comes to being a man, does it, kid?
Spring it; get it off your chest."
Billy made a horseshoe in the sand with the toe of his boot
meditatively; then said:
"Slimy Red, of course, will be lookin' for a match for Ding Dong. Most
of the races here is sprints, the old Texas game of half-a-mile, and
weight don't cut much ice that distance. He'll make it for a mile, or
a mile-and-a-quarter, 'cause Ding Dong could stay that distance pretty
well himself. If you was to match Waster against the black, and let me
ride him, I'd bring home the bacon. He's a fourteen pound better horse
than Ding Dong ever was; a handicapper would separate them that much on
their form. Gee! I forgot somethin'," and Billy, a shame-faced look in
his eyes, gazed helplessly at Bulldog.
"What was it dropped out of your think-pan, kid?"
"The roll. I've been makin' a noise like a man with a bank behind him. A
match ain't like where a feller can go into the bettin' ring if he knows
a couple of hundred-to-one chances and parley a shoe-string into a block
of city houses; a match is even money, just about. And to win a big
stake you've got to have the long green."
"How much, Billy?"
"Well, the Iron Jaw bunch, bein' whisky men and gamblers, naturally
would stand to lose twenty thousand, at least."
"I could manage it in a couple of days, Billy, by keeping the wires
hot."
"Before I forget it, Mr. Carney, if you do buck this crowd make it catch
weights. Slimy Red don't own a hair in Ding Dong's tail, of course, but
he'll have a bill of sale right enough showin' he's the owner, and as he
can ride light they'll word it, 'owners up'."
Carney was thinking fast, and a glint of light shot athwart his placid
gray eyes.
"Happy thought, Kid; we'll string with them on that; we'll make it
owners up."
"I said catch weights," Billy snapped irritably. Carney answered with
only a quizzical smile, and the boy, turning, walked around the horse
eyeing him from every angle. He lifted first one foot and then the
others, examining them critically, pressing a thumb into the frogs.
He pinched with thumb and forefinger the tendons of both forelegs; he
squeezed the horse's windpipe till the latter coughed; then he said:
"Please, Mr. Carney, mount and give him half a furlong at top speed,
finishin' up here. Make him break as quick as you can till I see if he's
got the slows."
As obedient as a servant Bulldog swung to the saddle, centered the
buckskin down the road, wheeled, brought the horse to a standstill, and
then, with a shake of the rein and a cry of encouragement, came tearing
back, the pound of the horse's hoofs on the turf palpitating the air
like the roll of a kettle-drum.
"Great!" the boy commented when Carney, having gently eased the horse
down, returned. "He's the same old Waster; he flattens out in that
stride of his till he looks like a pony. His flanks ain't pumpin' none.
He'll do; he's had lots of work--he's in better condition than Ding
Dong, 'cause Slimy Red's been puttin' in most of his trainin' time at
the bar. I got a three-pound saddle in my trunk that I won the 'Kenner
Stakes' at Saratoga on. Slimy Red will be givin' me about ten pounds if
you make the match catch weights; it'll be a cinch--like gettin' money
from home. But don't tell Molly."
"We'll split fifty-fifty," Carney said.
"Nothin' doin', Mister Mug; you cop the coin for yourself--how much are
you goin' to bet?"
"Five or ten thousand."
"Well, you give me ten per cent of the five thousand--five hundred
bucks, if we win. That'll square Molly's bill for bringin' me up here."
"Come inside, kid," Carney said; "I want to write out something."
Inside Carney said, "Molly, I'm going to give Pat to Billy for a riding
horse----"
"What?"
But Billy's gasp of astonishment was choked by a frowning wink of one of
Bulldog's gray eyes.
"Pat's getting a little old for the hard knocks I have to give a horse,"
Carney resumed; "that's partly what I came to Walla Walla for, to get a
young horse. Let me have a sheet of paper and a pen; it doesn't do for a
man to own a horse in this country without handy evidence as how he came
by him; and though this is a gift I'm going to make it out in the form
of a bill of sale."
Carney drew up a simple bill of sale, stating, that for one dollar,
paid in hand, he transferred his buckskin horse "Pat" to William Mackay.
Molly signed it as witness.
"I'll have to keep Pat for a day or two till I get a new pony." Bulldog
declared; "also rather think I'll leave this bill of sale with a friend
in town for safe keeping, Billy might lose it," and a wink closed one of
the gray eyes that were turned on the boy's face.
As Carney sat the buckskin outside, he whispered, "Do you get it,
Billy--owners up?"
"Gee! I get you."
The little man had been mystified.
"Don't be in a hurry over the race," he advised; "make it for one week
away. That'll give me a chance to give Waster a few lessons in breakin'
to bring him back to the old days. I'll put a heavy blanket about his
neck for a gallop or two and sweat some of the fat off his pipes. I can
get a set of racin' plates made for him, too, for a pound off his feet
is four pounds off his back. We'll give him all the fine touches, Mr.
Carney, and Waster 'll do his part."
The little man watched the buckskin lope down toward Walla Walla, then
he turned in to the cottage where he was greeted by Molly.
"Ain't Bulldog some man, Billy?"
"Will you tell me something, Molly?" the boy asked hesitatingly.
"Shoot," she commanded.
"Is he--was he--the man--Bessie told me something?"
"There ain't no woman on God's footstool, Billy, can say Bulldog Carney
was the man that fell down. That's why we all like him. There ain't a
woman on the Gold Coast that ever lamped Bulldog that wouldn't stake
him if she had to put her sparklers in hock. And there ain't a man
that knows him that'll try to put one over--'tain't healthy. He's got a
temper as sweet as a bull pup's, but he's lightnin' when he starts.
He don't cotton to no girl, 'cause he was once engaged to one of the
sweetest you ever see, Billy."
"Did she die, Molly?"
"The other man did! And nothin' was done to Bulldog 'cause it was comin'
to the hound."
Carney rode on till he came to the Mountain House. Here he was at home
for the proprietor was an old Gold Range friend.
First he saw that the buckskin had a worthy supper, then he ate his own.
When it had grown dark and the gleaming lights of the Del Monte Saloon
were throwing their radiancy out into the street, he put the bridle
on his buckskin and rode to the house of "Teddy the Leaper," who was
Sheriff of Shoshone County.
The sheriff welcomed Carney with a differential friendship that showed
they stood well together as man to man; for though Bulldog's reputation
varied in different places, and with different people, it stood
strongest with those who had known him longest, and who, like most men
of the West, were apt to judge men from their own experience.
Teddy the Leaper admired Bulldog Carney the man; he would have staked
his life on anything Carney told him. Officially, as sheriff, the County
of Shoshone was his bailiwick, and the County of Shoshone held nothing
on its records against Carney. "Always a gentleman," was Teddy's summing
up of Bulldog Carney.
Carney drew an envelope from his pocket, saying: "Will you take care of
this for me, Sheriff? Inside is a bill of sale of my horse."
"What, Bulldog--the buckskin?" Teddy's eyes searched the speaker's face;
it was unbelievable. A light dawned upon the sheriff; Bulldog had put
many a practical joke over--he was kidding. Teddy laughed.
"Bulldog," he said, "I've heard that you was English, a son of one of
them bloated lords, but faith it's Irish you are. You've as much humor
as you've nerve--you're Irish."
"There's also a note in that envelope"--Carney ignored the chaff--"that
directs you to pay over to a little lad that's up against it out at
Molly's place, any money that might happen to be in your hands if I
suddenly--well, if I didn't need it--see?"
"I'll do that, Bulldog."
"Think you'll be at the Del Monte to-night, Sheriff?" Carney asked
casually.
Teddy's Irish eyes flashed a quizzical look on the speaker; then
he answered diplomatically: "There ain't no call why I got to be
there--lest I'm sent for, and I ain't as spry gettin' around as I was
when I made that record of forty-six feet for the hop-step-and-jump. If
you've got anything to settle, go ahead."
Carney rippled one of his low musical laughs: "I'd like to line you up
at the bar, Sheriff, for a thimbleful of poison."
Teddy's eyes again sought the speaker's mental pockets, but the placid
face showed no warrant for expected trouble. The Sheriff coughed, then
ventured:
"If you're goin' to stack up agin odds, Bulldog, I'll dress for the
occasion; I don't gener'ly go 'round hostile draped."
Again Carney laughed. "You might bring a roomy pocket, Sheriff; it might
so turn out that I'd like you to hold a few eagle birds till such times
as they're right and proper the property of another man or myself. Does
that put any kink in your code?"
"Not when I act for you, Bulldog; 'cause it'll be on the level: I'll be
there."
Next Carney rode to the Del Monte; and hitching the buckskin to a post,
he adjusted his belt till the butt of his gun lay true to the drop of
his hand.
As he entered the saloon slowly, his gray eyes flashed over the bar and
a group of men on the right of the gaming tables, for there was one man
perhaps in Walla Walla he wanted to see before the other saw him. It
wasn't Slimy Red--it was a tougher man.
Iron Jaw was leaning against the bar talking to Death-on-the-trail, and
behind the bar Snaggle Tooth Boone stood listening to the conversation.
As Carney entered a quick look of apprehension showed for an instant
in Iron Jaw's heavy-browned eyes; then a smile of greeting curled his
coarse lips. He held out a hand, saying: "Glad to see you, Old Timer.
You seem conditioned. Know Carson?"
"Yes."
Carney shook hands with the two men, and reached across to clasp Boone's
paw, adding: "We'll sample the goods, Snaggle Tooth."
Boone winced at the appellation, for Carney did not smile; there was
even the suspicion of a sneer on the lean face.
"How is Walla Walla?" Carney queried, as the four glasses were held
toward each other in salute. "Racing relieved by a little gun argument
once in a while, I suppose. Chief Joseph threatening to let his Nez
Perces loose on you?"
"Racin' is on the hog," Iron Jaw growled. "There's a bum over yonder
pikin' agin the Wheel that's been stung by the racin' bug, but when he
calls for a show-down some of 'em will trim him. Hear that?"
Iron Jaw held up a thumb, and they could hear a thin strident voice
babbling:
"Walla Walla's a nursery for tin horn sports. There ain't a man here got
anythin' but a goose liver pumpin' his system, and a length of rubber
hose up his back holdin' his ribs."
Somebody objected; and the voice, that Carney recognized as Texas Sam's
snarled:
"Five birds of liberty! You call that bettin'--a hundred iron men?"
"Want to see him?" Iron Jaw queried. "I can't place him. Texas Sam he
comes here as; seems to be well fixed; but he's a booze fighter. I guess
that's what gives him dreams."
Quiescently Bulldog followed the lead of Iron Jaw and Death-on-the-trail
across the room where, with his back to the door, at a roulette table
sat Texas Sam. He was winning; three stacks of chips rose to a toppling
height at his right hand.
Carney noticed from the color that they were five dollar chips. Knowing
from Molly that Texas was a stool pigeon he understood the philosophy
of the high-priced counters. It was easier to keep tally on what he
drew and what he turned back in after the game, for the losings and the
winnings were all a bluff, and the money furnished him for the show had
to be accounted for Iron Jaw trusted no man. "The game's like roundin'
up a bunch of cows heavy in calf," Texas was saying as they approached;
"it's too damn slow. I want action."
He placed five chips on the thirteen as the croupier spun the wheel,
bleating:
"Hoodoo thirteen's my lucky number. I was whelped on Friday the
thirteenth, at thirteen o'clock--as you old leatherheads make it, one
A.M." The little ivory ball skipped and hopped as it slid down from the
smooth plane of the wheel to the number chambers. It almost settled into
one, and then, as if agitated by some unseen devil of perversity, rolled
over the thin wall and lay, like a bird's egg, in a black nest that was
number "13."
"By a nose!" Texas exulted. "Do I win, Judge?" The croupier's face was
as expressionless as the silver veil of Mahmoud as he built into pillars
over eight hundred dollars in chips, and shoved them across the board to
Texas.
The noisy one swept them to the side of the table, and called for a
drink.
It was a curiously diversified interest that centered on this play
of the uncouth Texas. Iron Jaw and Death-on-the-trail viewed it with
apathetic interest, much as a trainer might watch a pupil punching the
bag--it didn't mean anything.
Carney, too, knowing its farcical value, looked on, waiting for his
opportunity.
Snaky Dick sat across the table from Texas, dribbling a few fifty-cent
chips here and there amongst the numbers, also waiting. To him the play
was real; he had seen it in reality a thousand times--a man loaded with
bad liquor and in possession of money running the gamut. Behind Snaky
Dick sat others of the Clatawa clique waiting for his lead. Their money
was ready to cinch the match as soon as made.
Iron Jaw watched Snaky Dick furtively; the time seemed ripening. They
had arranged, through some little vagaries of the wheel, vagaries that
could be brought out by the assistance of the croupier, that apparently
Texas should make a killing.
Now the croupier called out: "Make your bets, gentlemen." He gave the
wheel a send-off with finger and thumb, his droning voice singing
the cadence of: "Hurry up, gentlemen! Make your bets while the
merry-go-round plays on."
"For a repeat," Texas shrilled, dropping the chips one after another on
to the thirteen square until they stood like a candle. Impatiently the
croupier checked him:
"Mind the limit, Mister."
"When I play the sky's my limit," Texas answered.
"Not here," the croupier admonished, sweeping three-quarters of the
ivory discs from thirteen.
The little ball of peripatetic fate that had held on its erratic way
during this, now settled down into a compartment painted green.
"Double zero!" the croupier remarked, and swept the table bare.
Texas cursed. "There ain't no double zero in racin'; there ain't no
green-eyed horse runnin' for the the track--everybody's got a chance.
Here! I'm goin' to cash in."
He shoved the ivory chips irritably across the table, and the croupier,
stacking them in his board, said: "A thousand and fifty."
As methodically as he had built up the chips, from a drawer he erected
little golden plinths of twenty-dollar pieces, and with both hands
pushed them toward the winner. .
Texas put the palm of his hand on the shiny mound, saying:
"I'm goin' to orate; I'm gettin' plumb hide-bound 'cause of this long
sleep in Walla Walla. To-morrow I'm pullin' my freight down the trail to
the outside where men is. But these yeller-throated singin' birds says
I got a cow-hocked whang-doodle on four hoofs named Horned Toad that
can outrun anything that eats with molars in Walla Walla, from a
grasshopper's jump to four miles. Now I've said it, ladies--who's next?"
A quiet voice at his elbow answered almost plaintively: "If you will
take your paw off those yellow boys I'll bury them twice."
At the sound of that drawling voice Texas sprang to his feet, whirled,
and seeing Carney, struck at him viciously. Carney simply bent his lithe
body, and the next instant Iron Jaw had Texas by the throat, shaking him
like a rat.
"You damn locoed fool!" he swore; "what d'you mean?--what d'you mean?"
each query being emphasized by a vigorous shake.
"He simply means," explained Carney, "that he's a cheap bluffer--a wind
gambler. When he's called he quits. That's just what I thought."
"Give him a chance, Blake," Death-on-the-trail interposed; "let go!"
Iron Jaw pressed Texas back into his chair, saying:
"You've got too much booze. If you want to bet on your horse sit there
and cut out this Injun stuff." Snaky Dick had jumped to his feet,
startled by the fact that Carney was about to break in on his preserve.
Now he said: "If Texas is pinin' for a race Clatawa is waitin'--so is
his backin'."
Carney turned his gray eyes on the speaker: "There's a rule in this
country, Snaky, that when two men have got a discussion on, others keep
out. I've undertaken to call this jack rabbit's bluff, and he makes
good, or takes his noisy organ away to play it outside of Walla Walla."
Texas Sam had received a thumb in the rib from Iron Jaw that meant, "Go
ahead," so he said, surlily: "There's my money on the table. Anybody can
come in--the game's wide open."
"That being so," Carney drawled, "there's a little buckskin horse tied
to the post outside, that's carried me for three years around this land
of delight, and he looks good to me."
He unslung from his waist a leather roll, and dropped its snake-like
body across the Texas coin, saying:
"There's two thousand in twenties, and if this cheap-singing person sees
the raise, it goes for a race at a mile-and-a-quarter between the little
buckskin outside and this cow-hocked mule he sings about."
"I want to see this damn buckskin," Texas objected.
"You don't need to worry," Iron Jaw commented; "the horse is pretty nigh
as well known as Bulldog."
But Texas, having been born in a very nest of iniquity, having been
stable boy, tout, half-mile-track ringer, and runner for a wire-tapping
bunch, was naturally suspicious.
"I don't match against an unknown," he objected; "let me lamp this
Flyin' Dutchman of the Plains; it may be Salvator for all I know."
"Let him get out the door," Carney sneered; "it will be good-bye--we'll
never see him again."
"And if we don't," Snaky Dick interposed, "I'll cover your money,
Carney."
Bulldog swung the gray eyes, and levelled them at the red-and-yellow
streaked beads that did seeing duty in Snaky's face:
"You ever hear about the gent who was kicked out of Paradise and told to
go scoot along on his belly for butting in?" Then he followed the little
crowd at Texas Sam's heels.
In the yellow glare of the Del Monte lights the buckskin looked very
little like a race horse. He stood about fifteen and a quarter hands,
looking not much more than a pony, as, half asleep, he had relaxed his
body; the lop ears hanging almost at right angles to his lean bony head
suggested humor more than speed. He stood "over" on his front legs, a
habit contracted when he favoured the weak knees. As he was a gelding
his neck was thin, so far removed from a crest that it was almost
ewe-like; his tremendous width of rump caused the hip bones to project,
suggesting an archaic design of equine structure. The direct lamplight
threw cavernous shadows all over his lean form.
Texas Sam shot one rapid look of appraisement over the sleepy little
horse; then he laughed.
"Pinch me, Iron Jaw!" he cried; "am I ridin' on the tail board of an
overland bus seein' things in the desert, and hearin' wings?"
He pointed a forefinger at the buckskin. "Is that the lopin' jack-rabbit
that runs for your money?" he queried of Carney.
"That horse's name is Pat," Bulldog answered quietly, "and we've been
pals so long that when any yapping coyote snaps at him I most naturally
kick the brute out of the way. But that's the horse, Buckskin Pat,
that my money says can outrun, for a mile-and-a-quarter, the horse you
describe as a cow-hocked cow-pony, the same being, I take it, the horse
you scooted away on when I palmed you on the mouth this morning."
Texas Sam was naturally of a vicious temper, and this allusion caused
him to flare up again, as Carney meant it to. But Iron Jaw whirled him
around, saying:
"Cut out the man end of it--let's get down to cases. We ain't had a live
'hoss race for so long that I most forget what it looks like. If you two
mean business come inside and put up your bets, gentlemen."
Iron Jaw abrogated to himself the duty of Master of Ceremonies. First
he set his croupier to work counting the gold of Texas Sam and Bulldog
Carney. There were an even hundred twenty-dollar gold pieces in the belt
Carney had thrown on the table.
"You're shy on the raise," Iron Jaw remarked, winking at Texas.
"I'll see his raise," the latter growled. "You've got more'n that of
mine in your safe, Iron Jaw, so stack 'em up for me till they're level.
I might as well win somethin' worth while--there won't be no fun in the
race. That jack--that buckskin,"--he checked himself--"won't make me go
fast enough to know I'm in the saddle."
"You let me in that and I'll furnish the speed," Snaky Dick could not
resist the temptation to clutch at the money he saw slipping away from
him. "Make it a three-cornered sweep, Mr. Carney," he pleaded; "I'll
ante."
"It would be some race," Iron Jaw encouraged; "some race, boys. I've
seen the little buckskin amble. I don't know nothin' about this Texas
person's caravan, but Clatawa, for a sauce bottle that holds both warm
and cold blood, ain't so slow--he ain't so slow, gents."
The idea caught on; everybody in the saloon rose to the occasion. Yells
of, "Make it a sweep! Let Clatawa in! Wake up old Walla Walla with
something worth while!" came from many throats.
Bulldog seemed to debate the matter, a smile twitching his drab
mustache.
"I've said it," Texas cried; "she's wide open. Anybody that's got a pet
eagle he thinks can fly faster'n my cow-pony can run, can enter him.
There ain't no one barred, and the limit's up where the pines point to."
Snaky Dick had edged around the table till he stood close beside
Bulldog, where he whispered: "Let me in, Carney; I've been layin' for
this flannel-mouth. I don't want to see him get away with Walla Walla
money. You save your stake with me, if I'm in."
Carney pushed the little wizzen-face speaker away, saying:
"Any kind of a talking bird can swing in on a winning if he's got a
copper-riveted, cinch bet. But sport, as I understand it, gentlemen,
consists in providing excitement, taking on long chances."
"That's Bulldog talkin'," somebody interrupted; and they all cheered.
"That being acknowledged," Carney resumed, "I feel like stealing candy
from a blind kid when I crowd in on this Texas person. A yellow man
wouldn't know how to own a real horse; that money on the table is, so
to speak, mine now; but as Snaky Dick is panting to make it a real race,
purely out of a kindly feeling for Walla Walla sports, I'm going to let
him draw cards. Clatawa is welcome."
"The drinks is on the house when I hear a wolf howl like that!" Snaggle
Tooth yelled. "Crowd up, gentlemen--the drinks is on the house! Old
Walla Walla is goin' to sit up and take notice; Bulldog is some live
wire."
Chairs were thrust back; men crowded the bar; liquors were tossed off.
Sheriff Teddy the Leaper, who had come in, felt his arm touched by
Carney, and inclining his head to a gentle pull at his coat-sleeve, he
heard the latter whisper, "Stake holder for my sake." That was all.
Then the crowd swarmed back to the table where the croupier had remained
beside the mound of gold.
"You give Jim, there, a receipt for a thousand, and he'll pass it out,"
Iron Jaw told Texas.
Jim the croupier took from the safe behind him rolls of twenty-dollar
gold pieces and stood them up in Texas's pile. He removed a few coins,
saying, "The pot is right, gentlemen; two thousand apiece."
"Hold on," Snaky Dick cried; "it ain't called yet--I draw cards."
"Not till you see the bet and the raise," Carney objected. "Nobody
whispers his way into this game; it's for blood."
"Give me a cheque book, Snaggle Tooth," Snaky pleaded.
"Flimsies don't go," Carney objected.
"Nothin' but the coin weighs in agin me," Texas agreed; "put up the
dough-boys or keep out."
Snaky was in despair. Here was just the softest spot in all the world,
and without the cash he couldn't get in.
"Will you cash my cheque?" he asked Iron Jaw.
"If Baker'll O.K. it I figger you must have the stuff in his bank--it'll
be good enough for me," Iron Jaw replied.
There was a little parley between Snaky Dick, his associates, and Baker,
who was a private banker. The cheque was made out, endorsed, and cashed
from the gambling funds, Iron Jaw being a partner of Snaggle Tooth's in
this commercial enterprise.
When the pot was complete, six thousand on the table, Texas said:
"We've got to have a stakeholder; put the money in Blake's hands--does
that go?"
Snaky Dick coughed, and hesitated. He had no suspicion that Iron Jaw had
any interest with Texas Sam, but knowing the man as he did, he felt sure
that before the race was run Iron Jaw and Snaggle Tooth would be in the
game up to the eyes.
The drawling voice of Carney broke the little hush that followed this
request.
"You're from the outside, Texas; you know all about your own horse,
and that lets you out. The selecting of a stakeholder, and such, most
properly belongs to Walla Walla, that is to say, such of us interested
as more or less live here. The Sheriff of Shoshone, who is present, if
he'll oblige, is the man that holds my money, and yours, too, unless you
want to crawfish. Does that suit you, Snaky?"
"It does," the latter answered cheerfully, for, fully believing that
Clatawa was going to show a clean pair of heels to the other horses, he
wanted the money where he could get it without gun-play.
"That's settled, then," Carney said blithely, ignoring Texas completely.
He turned to Teddy the Leaper: "Will you oblige, Sheriff?"
The Sheriff was agreeable, saying that as soon as they had completed
details they would take the money over to Baker's bank and lock it up
in the safe, Baker promising to take charge of it, even if it were at
night.
"Just repeat the conditions of the match," the Sheriff said, and he drew
from his pocket a note book and pencil.
Carney seized the opportunity to say:
"A three-cornered race between the buckskin gelding Pat, the black
gelding Horned Toad, and the bay horse Clatawa at one mile and a
quarter. The stake, two thousand dollars a corner; winner take all. To
be run one week from to-day."
"Is that right, gentlemen?" the Sheriff asked; "all agreed?"
"Owners up--this is a gentleman's race," Texas snapped.
"Satisfactory?" the Sheriff asked, his eyes on Carney.
The latter nodded; and Iron Jaw winked at Snaggle Tooth.
Snaky Dick could scarce credit his ears; surely the gods were looking
with favor upon his fortunes; the other riders would be giving him many
pounds in this self-accepted handicap.
At Sheriff Teddy's suggestion the gold was carried over to Baker's bank,
a stone building almost opposite the Del Monte; the bag containing it
was sealed and placed in a big safe, Baker giving the Sheriff a receipt
for six thousand dollars.
Then they went back to the Del Monte for target practise at the bottle,
each man implicated buying ammunition.
At this time Carney had taken the buckskin to his stable, going back to
the saloon.
Snaggle Tooth made a short patriotic speech, the burden of which was
that the saloon was full of men of eager habit who had not had a chance
to sit into the game, and to ameliorate the condition of these mournful
mavericks he would sell pools on the race, for the mere honorarium of
five per cent.
Fever was in the men's blood; if he had suggested twenty per cent it
would have gone.
Snaggle Tooth took up his position behind a faro table and called out:
"The pool is open, with Clatawa, Horned Toad, and Pat in the box. What
am I bid for first choice?"
"Twenty dollars," a voice cried.
"Thirty," another said.
"Forty."
"Fifty."
A dry rasp that suggested an alkaline throat squeaked: "A hundred. Is
this a horse race, or are we dribblin' into the plate at the synagogue?"
"Sold!" Snaggle Tooth yapped, knowing well that excitement begat quick
action. "Which cayuse do you favor, plunger?"
"The range horse, Clatawa."
The croupier at Snaggle Tooth's elbow took the bidder's live
twenty-dollar gold pieces and passed him a slip with Clatawa's name on
it.
"A hundred dollars in the box and second choice for sale," Snaggle Tooth
drawled, his prominent fang gleaming in the lamp light as he mouthed the
words.
Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty was bid like the quick popping of a
machine gun; at seventy-five the bids hung fire, and the auctioneer,
thumping the table with his bony fist, snapped, "Sold! Name your jack
rabbit."
"Horned Toad!" came from the bidder of the seventy-five.
"A hundred and seventy-five in the box," Snaggle Tooth droned, "and the
buckskin for sale. What about it, you pikers--what about it?"
There seemed to be nothing about it, unless silence was something. The
hush seemed to dampen the gambling spirit.
"What!" yelped Snaggle Tooth; "two thousand golden bucks staked on the
horse now, and no tinhorn with sand enough in his gizzard to open his
trap. This is a race, not a funeral--who's dead? Bulldog, you laid even
money; here's a hundred and seventy-five goin' a-beggin'. Ain't you got
a chance?"
"Ten dollars!" Carney bid as if driven into it.
"Ten dollars, ten dollars bid for the buckskin; a hundred and
seventy-five in the box, and ten dollars bid for the buckskin. Sold!"
The first pool was followed by others, one after another: the roulette
table, the keno game, and faro were in the discard--their tables were
deserted.
It soon became evident that Clatawa was a hot favorite; the public's
money was all for the Walla Walla champion.
Noting this, the Horned Toad trio hung back, bidding less. Clatawa
was selling for a hundred, Horned Toad about fifty, and the buckskin
sometimes knocked down at ten to Carney, or sometimes bid up to twenty
by someone tempted by the odds.
At last Carney slipped quietly away, having bought at least twenty
pools that stood him between three and four thousand to a matter of two
hundred.
In the morning he rode the buckskin out to Molly's cottage and turned
him over to Billy.
The boy's voice trembled with delight when he was told of what had taken
place.
"Gee! now I will get well," he said; "I'll beat the bug out now--I'll
have heart. You see, Mr. Carney, I got set down in California a year
ago. It wasn't my fault; I was ridin' for Timberleg Harley, and he give
the horse a bucket of water before the race; he didn't want to win--was
lettin' the horse run for Sweeney, layin' for a big price later on.
He had an interest in a book, and they took liberties with the horse's
odds--he was favorite. He didn't dare tell me anything about it, the
hound. When I found the horse couldn't raise a gallop, hangin' in my
hands like a sea lion, I didn't ride him out, thinkin' he'd broke down.
They had me up in the Judges' Stand, and sent for the books. It looked
bad. Timberleg got off by swearin' I'd pulled the horse to let the other
one win; swore that I stood in with the book that overlaid him. I was
give the gate, and it just broke my heart. I was weak from wastin'
anyway. And you can't beat the bug out if your heart's soft; the bug'll
win--it's a hundred-to-one on him. First thing I'm goin' to give Waster
a ball to clean him out, give him a bran mash, too. He must be like a
currycomb inside, grass and hay and everything here is full of this damn
cactus. A week ain't much to ready up a horse for a race, but he ain't
got no fat to work off, and he knows the game. In a week he'll be as
spry as a kitten. I'll just play with him. I'll bunk with him, too. If
Slimy Red got wise to anything he'd slip him a twig of locoe, or put a
sponge up his nose. Do you know what that thief did once, Mr. Carney? He
was a moonlighter; he sneaked the favorite for a race that was to be
run next day out of his stall at night and galloped him four miles with
about a hundred and sixty in the saddle. That settled the favorite; he
run his race same's if he was pullin' a hearse.
"That's a good idea, Billy. There's half-a-dozen Slimy Reds in Walla
Walla: it's a good idea, only I'll do the sleeping with the buckskin.
I'd be lonesome away from him."
The boy objected, but Carney was firm.
Billy was not only a good rider, but he was a man of much brains. There
was little of the art of training that he did not know, for his father
had been a trainer before him--he had been brought up in a stable.
Fortunately the buckskin's working life had left little to be desired in
the way of conditioning; it was just that the sinews and muscles might
have become case-hardened, more the muscles of endurance than activity.
But then the race was over a distance, a mile-and-a-quarter, where the
endurance of the thoroughbred would tell over Clatawa. Indeed, full of
the contempt which a racing man has for a cold-blooded horse, Billy did
not consider Clatawa in the race at all.
"That part of it is just found money," he assured Carney. "Clatawa will
go off with a burst of speed like those Texas half-milers, and he'll
commence to die at the mile; he hasn't a chance."
As to Ding Dong it was simply a question of whether the black had
improved and Waster gone back enough, through being thrown out of
training, to bring the two together. Anywhere near alike in condition
Waster was a fourteen-pound better horse than Ding Dong. It might be
that now, his legs sounder than they had ever been when he was racing,
Waster might run the best mile-and-a-quarter of his life.
Of course this might not be possible in a three-quarter sprint, for, at
that terrific rate of going, running it from end to end at top speed,
a certain nervous or muscular system would be called upon that had
practically become atrophied through the more leisure ways of the trail
work.
The little man pondered over these many things just as a man of commerce
might mentally canvas great markets, conveying his point of view to
Carney generally. He would map out the race as they sat together in the
evening.
"Of course Snaky Dick will shoot out from the crack of the pistol, and
try to open up a gap that'll break our hearts. He won't dare to
pull Clatawa in behind; a cold-blooded horse's got the heart of a
chicken--he'd quit. Slimy'll carry Ding Dong along at a rate he knows
will leave him enough for a strong run home; but he'll think that he's
only got Clatawa to beat and he'll pull out of his pace--he'll keep
within strikin' distance of Clatawa. I'll let them go on. I know 'bout
how fast Waster can run that mile-and-a-quarter from end to end. Don't
you worry if you see me ten lengths out of it at the mile. Waster won
all his races comin' through his horses from behind--'cause he's game.
When Caltawa cracks, and I'm not up, Slimy'll stop ridin' he'll let
his horse down thinkin' he's won. You'll see, Mr. Carney. If a
quarter-of-a-mile from the finish post I'm within three lengths of Ding
Dong and not drivin' him you can take all the money in sight. I'll tell
you somethin' else, Mr. Carney; if I'm up with Ding Dong, and Slimy Red
thinks I've got him, he'll try a foul."
"Glad you mentioned it, little man," Carney remarked drily.
The buckskin was given a long steady gallop the day after he had
received the ball of physic; then for three days he was given short
sprinting runs and a little practise at breaking from the gun. Two days
before the race he was given a mile and a quarter at a little under
full speed; rated as though he were in a race, the last half a topping
gallop. He showed little distress, and cleaned up his oats an hour later
after he had been cooled out. Billy was in an ecstasy of happy content.
Nobody who was a judge of a horse's pace had seen Waster gallop his
trial over the full course, for the boy had arranged it cleverly.
Texas Sam and Snaky Dick both worked their horses in the morning, and
sometimes gave them a slow gallop in the evening. Billy knew that at the
first peep of day some of the Clatawa people would be on the track,
so he waited that morning until everybody had gone home to breakfast,
thinking all the gallops were over; then he slipped on to the course and
covered the mile-and-a-quarter without being seen.
The course was a straightaway, one hundred feet wide, lying outside of
the town on the open plain, and running parallel to the one long street.
The finish post was opposite the heart of the town.
The week was one long betting carnival; one heard nothing but betting
jargon. It was horse morning, noon, and night.
Carney had acquired another riding horse, and the Horned Toad cabal
laughed cynically at his seriousness. Iron Jaw could not understand it,
for Bulldog had a reputation for cleverness; but here he was acting like
a tenderfoot. Once or twice a suspicion flashed across his mind that
perhaps Bulldog had discovered something, and meant to call them after
they had won the race. But there was Clatawa; there was nothing to cover
up in his case, and surely Carney didn't think he could beat the bay
with his buckskin. Besides they weren't racing under Jockey Club rules.
They hadn't guaranteed anything; Carney had matched his horse against
the black, and there he was; names didn't count--the horse was the
thing.
Molly had heard about the match and had grown suspicious over Billy's
active participation, fearing it might bring on a hemorrhage if he rode
a punishing race. When she taxed Billy with this he pleaded so hard for
a chance to help out, assuring Molly that Waster would run his own race,
and would need little help from him, that she yielded. When she talked
to Bulldog about it he told her he was going to give the whole stake to
Billy, the four thousand, if he won it.
And then came the day of the great match. From the time the first golden
shafts of sunlight had streamed over the Bitter Root Mountains, picking
out the forms of Walla Walla's structures, that looked so like a mighty
pack of wolves sleeping in the plain, till well on into the afternoon,
the border town had been in a ferment. What mattered whether there
was gold in the Coeur d'Alene or not; whether the Nez Perces were good
Presbyterians under the leadership, physically, of Chief Joseph, and
spiritually, Missionary Mackay, was of no moment. A man lay cold in
death, a plug of lead somewhere in his chest, the result of a gambling
row, but the morrow would be soon enough to investigate; to-day was
_the_ day--the day of the race; minor business was suspended.
It made men thirsty this hot, parching anticipation; women had a desire
for finery. Doors stood open, for the dwellers could not sit, but
prowled in and out, watching the slow, loitering clock hands for four
o'clock.