of sky and earth, seemed the huddling bunch of dejected
buildings, and yet the whole interest of heaven above and earth around
centred in those straggling shacks, for they were the abodes of men.

From feasting his heart upon the marvellous beauty of the expanse of
rounded hills, with their variegation of sunlight and shadow, and the
expanse of cloudless sky, deep blue overhead and shading by indefinable
transitions through blues and purples into pearl greys and rose tints,
and at last into glorious yellow gold at the horizon, Shock, with
almost a shudder, turned his eyes to the little ragged town beneath
him. How marvellous the works of God! How ugly the things man makes!

It was partly the infinitude of this contrast that wrought in Shock a
feeling of depression as he followed the trail winding down the long
slope toward the town. As he became aware of this depression, he took
himself severely to task.

"What's the matter with me, anyway?" he asked himself impatiently. "I'm
not afraid of them." And yet he had a suspicion that it was just this
that troubled him. He was afraid. The feeling was not one with which he
was unfamiliar. Often before a big match he had been shamefully
conscious of this same nervous fear. He remembered how his heart had
seemed too big for his body, till he felt it in his throat. But he
remembered now, with no small comfort, that once the ball was kicked
his heart had always gone back to its place and its work and gave him
no further concern, and to-day he hoped this might be his experience
again.

It was a great day at the Fort, nothing less than the Spring Meeting of
the South Alberta Turf Association; and in that horse country, where
men were known by their horses rather than by personal characteristics,
the meeting of the Turf Association easily took precedence over all
other events, social or political.

This spring, to the interest naturally centring in the races, there was
added a special interest, in that, behind the horses entered for the
Association Cup, there gathered intense local feeling. The three
favourites were representative horses. The money of the police and all
the Fort contingent in the community had been placed on the long,
rangey thoroughbred, Foxhall, an imported racer who had been fast
enough to lose money in the great racing circuits of the East, but who
was believed to be fast enough to win money here in the West.

The district about the fort town was divided int