four-year-old maiden!"

Langdon laughed approvingly. Crane was evidently coming back to his view
of the case.

"Well, as I've said, he's a maiden, and we'll try and graduate him out
of that class. It will be a great chance for a killing if we can round
him into his early two-year-old form; and you can do it, Langdon, if
anybody on earth can."

"Now I've got him on his reputation," thought Crane, idly brushing
specks of cigar ash from the front of his coat.

"Just as I thought," mused Langdon; "the old man's got a horse after his
own heart. Everybody thinks Diablo's no good, but the boss has found out
something, and is on for the biggest kind of a coup."

"How's The Dutchman coming on?" asked Crane, intimating by the question
that the subject of Diablo bad been closed out, for the present, at
least.

"Great. He cleans up his four quarts three times a day, and is as big as
a cart horse. I never had a better doer in my hands. If he keeps well,
and I think he will, you have a great chance with him for the Brooklyn
Derbv."

"That's encouraging. There are some good horses in it, though, White
Moth and others. However, I'll back The Dutchman to win fifty thousand,
and there'll be ten thousand in that for you, Langdon, if it comes off."
The Trainer's mouth watered. Money was his god. Horses were all right as
a means to an end, but the end itself was gold. He would stop at nothing
to attain that end; his avaricious mind, stimulated by Crane's promise,
came at once to the disturbing element in the pleasant prospect,
Shandy's report of Lucretia's good form.

"Did you find out anything about Porter's mare Lucretia? I know White
Moth's form; both fit and well. The Dutchman holds him safe over the
Derby journey."

"No; I didn't hear anything about Porter's mare."

"I have," said Langdon, decisively. "I paid a boy to keep an eye on her,
and he says she'll be hard to beat."

Crane frowned. "What boy?" he asked, abruptly.

"Shandy."

"Well, just drop that; chuck that game. John Porter has his own
troubles. If he can win, let him. He can't if The Dutchman keeps well;
but anyway, our own horses will keep us fully occupied."

Langdon was dumbfounded. If Crane had opened the Bible and read a
chapter from St. Luke he would not have been more astonished. It had
occurred to him that he had done a remarkably smart thing; he had
expected commendation for his adroitness in looking after his master's
interests. This disapprobati