racing law is very strict on that point."

"But evidently it is done," contended Dolman.

"I think there's very little of it," said Porter.

This turn of the conversation made Crane feel very uneasy. "Do you
think, Mr. Porter," he asked, "that there was anything of that sort over
Lauzanne? Do you think Langdon would--" He hesitated.

"Mr. Langdon has a tolerable idea of what I think," answered Porter.
"I shouldn't trust that man too much if I were you. He's got cunning
enough, though, to run straight with a man like yourself, who has a
horse or two in his stable, and doesn't go in for betting very heavily."

"I know very little about him," protested Crane; "and, as you say, he
will probably act quite straightforward with me, at least."

"Yes," continued Porter, half wearily, as though he wished to finish the
distasteful discussion; "there are black sheep in racing as there are
in everything else. My own opinion is that the most of the talk we hear
about crooked racing is simply talk. At least nine out of ten races are
honestly run--the best horse wins. I would rather cut off my right hand
than steal a race, and yet last summer it was said that I had pulled
Lucretia."

"I never heard of that, John," cried Mrs. Porter, in astonishment.

"No, you didn't," dryly answered her husband.

Allis smiled; she had settled that part of it with her father at the
time.

"If you'll excuse me," began Crane, rising, "I think Mr. Wortimer is
getting tired. I believe I'll jog back to Brookfield."

Reluctantly the Reverend Dolman rose, too. He felt, somehow, that the
atmosphere of racing had smothered his expostulation--that he had made
little headway. The intense honesty that was John Porter's shielded him
about almost as perfectly as, a higher form of belief might have done.

But with almost a worldly cunning it occurred to the clergyman that he
could turn the drawn battle into a victory for the church; and as they
stood for a minute in the gentle bustle of leave-taking, he said: "The
ever-continuing fight that I carry on against the various forms of
gambling must necessarily take on at times almost a personal aspect--"
he was addressing Mr. Porter, ostensibly--"but in reality it is not
quite so. I think I understand your position, Mr. Porter, and--and--what
shall I say--personally I feel that the wickedness of racing doesn't
appeal to you as a great contamination; you withstand it, but you
will forgive me saying so, thousand