u see. We've just got one
peg to hang our hat on--that's Lucretia."

Lauzanne's showing in this race was a great disappointment to Allis; she
had hoped that his confidence in humanity had been restored. Physically
he had undoubtedly improved; his legs had hardened and smoothed down. In
fact, his whole condition was perfect.

She still felt that if Redpath had followed her advice and allowed
Lauzanne to run his own race he would have won. The race did not shake
her confidence in the horse so much as in the possibility of getting
any jockey to ride him in a quiescent manner. When it was impossible of
Redpath, who was eager to please her, whom else could they look to? They
might experiment, but while they were experimenting Lauzanne would be
driven back into his old bad habits.

The next morning brought them fresh disaster; all that had gone before
was as nothing compared with this new development in their run of
thwarted endeavor.

Ned Carter had given Lucretia a vigorous exercise gallop over the Derby
course. As Dixon led the mare through the paddock to a stall he suddenly
bent down his head and took a sharp look at her nostrils; another stride
and they were in the stall. The Trainer felt Lucretia's throat and ears;
he put his hand over her heart, a look of anxious dismay on his usually
stolid face.

"She coughed a little, sir, when I pulled her up," volunteered Carter,
seeing Dixon's investigation.

"I'm afraid she's took cold," muttered Dixon. "Have you had her near
any horses that's got the influenza?" he asked, looking inquiringly at
Carter.

"She ain't been near nothing; I kept her away from everything, for fear
she'd get a kick, or get run into."

"I hope to God it's nothin'," said the Trainer; and his voice was
quite different from his usual rough tone. Then a sudden suspicion took
possession of him. Faust's readiness to lay long odds against the mare
had haunted him like a foolish nightmare. Had there been foul play? The
mare couldn't have taken a cold--they had been so careful of her; there
had been no rain for ten days; she hadn't got wet. No, it couldn't be
cold. But she undoubtedly had fever. A sickening conviction came that it
was the dreaded influenza.

That morning was the first time she had coughed, so Faust could not have
known of her approaching illness, unless he had been the cause of it.

The Trainer pursued his investigation among the stable lads. When he
asked Finn if he had noticed any