, as Porter could not hesitate to discuss his financial
condition with his banker. Crane offered to buy Lucretia; this with
him was purely a speculation, but Porter would not part with his little
mare. Then the banker spoke of Lauzanne, saying that he felt somewhat
guilty since learning the previous evening that the horse had been
doped. Porter failed to see where Crane had anything to do with it. But
the latter insisted that he had unwittingly helped Langdon by speaking
of Lauzanne as a good horse. He had known nothing of the matter, beyond
that his trainer had assured him the horse would win; in fact, he had
backed him.

Porter laughed at the idea that responsibility could attach to Crane. As
to the Chestnut, he was not worth a tenth of the three thousand he had
cost--that was well known; and if Crane or any other man sought to
buy him at that price it would savor too much of charity. At any rate,
Lauzanne belonged to Allis, and Crane would have to bargain with her.

Then there was Diablo, Crane said; his presence was a menace to Miss
Porter.

"I've nursed him for a good while," Porter replied, "and he's a bad
betting proposition--he's too uncertain. You don't want such a horse as
that--nobody does. I'll keep him a bit longer, and put him in a handicap
or two where the purse will be worth running for, and I won't have to
back him; he'll get in with a featherweight, and some day may take it
into his head to gallop, though he's a rank bad one."

Crane did not press the point; he understood Porter's motives
throughout. He knew the master of Ringwood was an unchanging man, very
set in his ways, adhering closely to his plans and opinions. So Crane
went back to Brookfield without purchasing a horse, saying as he left,
"I claim first privilege when you wish to sell."

He had talked to Porter in the stable, and Mike, busy near by, heard
that part of their conversation referring to the horses.

"They haven't got money enough in the bank to take the little mare from
us yet, have they, Mike?" Porter said to Gaynor, full of his pride in
Lucretia.

"That they haven't, sor," replied Mike, proudly. "But, faith, I wish th'
gint hadn't come a-tryin' to buy her; it's bad luck to turn down a big
offer fer any horse."

Porter smiled indulgently. This stable superstition did not appeal to
him.

"It would a-broke the bad luck, sor, to have let him took the Black."

"It would have broken his bank, you mean, Mike."

"Well, he'l