"Why--why about Crimmins, about Waterbury, about Sis--everything,"
exclaimed Drake. "It was all in the Eastern papers. You were in Bellevue
then. I thought you knew. Don't you know, kid, that it was proven that
Crimmins poisoned Sis? Hold on, keep quiet. Yes, it was Crimmins. Now,
don't get excited. Yes, I'll tell you all. Give me time. Why, kid, you
were as clean as the wind that dried your first shirt. Sure, sure. We
all knew it--then. And we thought you did--"

"Tell me, tell me." Garrison's lip was quivering; his face gray with
excitement.

Drake ran on forcefully, succinctly, his hand gripping Garrison's.

"Well, we'll take it up from that day of the Carter Handicap. Remember?
When you and Waterbury had it out? Now, I had suspected that Dan
Crimmins had been plunging against his stable for some time. I had
got on to some bets he had put through with the aid of his dirty
commissioners. That's why I stood up for you against Waterbury. I knew
he was square. I knew he didn't throw the race, and, as for you--well,
I said to myself: 'That ain't like the kid.' I knew the evidence against
you, but it was hard to believe, kid. And I believed you when you said
you hadn't made a cent on the race, but instead had lost all you had,
I believed that. But I knew Crimmins had made a pile. I found that out.
And I believed he drugged you, kid.

"Now, when you tell me you were fighting consumption it clears a lot of
space for me that has been dark. I knew you were doped half the time,
but I thought you were going the pace with the pipe, though I'll admit
I couldn't fathom what drug you were taking. But now I know Crimmins fed
you dope while pretending to hand you nerve food. I know it. I know
he bet against his stable time and ag'in and won every race you were
accused of throwing. I tracked things pretty clear that day after I left
you.

"Well, I went to Waterbury and laid the charge against the trainer;
giving him a chance to square himself before I made trouble higher up.
Well, Waterbury was mad. Said he had no hand in it, and I believed him.
The upshot of it was that he faced Crimmins. Now, Crimmins had been
blowing himself on the pile he had made, and he was nasty. Instead of
denying it and putting the proving of the game up to me, he took the bit
in his mouth at something Waterbury said.

"I don't know all the facts. They came out in the paper afterward. But
Crimmins and Waterbury had a scrap, and the trainer was fired. H