day that Queen Bess
would be victorious, for Frank had finally refused, point-blank, to let
her risk her fortune in the scheme for the development of his
coal-lands, and so, if the mare lost and the eastern firm refused to
purchase her at the large price which would enable him to join the
syndicate, his great chance would be gone. Perhaps not once in the
world's history had any maiden-lady, constitutionally opposed to betting
and the race-track, given as much thought to an impending contest
between horses on which great sums were certain to be won and lost, as
Miss Alathea did, these days.

And if Miss Alathea was excited, what should be said about the gallant
Colonel? Every day he visited the Layson place; every day he scrutinized
the mare with wise and anxious eyes; every day he from his soul assured
her owner and her owner's aunt that it was quite impossible that she
should lose; every day he cautioned Neb, her guardian, to let no human
being, whom he did not know and whom he and his master had not every
cause to trust implicitly, approach the splendid beast. Wise in the ways
of race-tracks and the unscrupulous men who have, unfortunately, thrown
the sport of kings into sad disrepute, he feared some treachery
continually.

Neb scarcely left the stable-yard, by day, unless the mare went with
him, by night he slept so that he could, by reaching out a wrinkled,
ebon hand, actually touch her glossy hide. He fed her himself with oats
and hay which he examined with the utmost care before they found her
manger or her rack; he watered her himself with water from a well within
the stable and guarded by locked doors, drawn in a pail which,
invariably, he rinsed with boiling water before he filled it up for her.
No drugs should reach that mare if _he_ could help it! None but himself
or his "Marse Frank" was under any circumstances permitted to get on her
back. If watchfulness could possibly preserve the mare unharmed and in
fine shape until the day of the great race, Neb plainly meant to see
that this was done. Even the amateur brass-band and glee-club into which
he had organized the stable-boys and other negro lads about the place,
and of which he acted as drum-major--the proudest moment of his life
were when he donned the moth-eaten old shako which was his towering
badge of leadership--must practice nowhere save within the stable-yard,
where he could train them and, at the same time, keep watchful eyes upon
Queen Bess' qua