ou don't like it I'll keep it to myself."

"You're barking up the wrong tree," Angus laughed. "She's as straight as
they make them. She says you're a remarkable liar, if you want to know."

Dorgan grinned. "I said she was wise. Maybe my work was a little raw,
but she took me by surprise, and I was just doin' the best I could
off-hand."

"You can't keep the horse cached forever."

"That's all right. There's no use tellin' what you know most times. This
Flambeau from what I hear will carry a whole bunch of money for them
Frenches. They're givin' as good as five to three against the field.
That means they got the field sized up, or fixed. But they ain't got a
line on Chief, nor they ain't got me fixed, so their calculations has
been clean upset. Somebody's been watchin' me exercise, the last day or
two, but whoever it is ain't had a chance to clock nothin', because they
don't know the distances, and anyway I didn't let him out. They ain't
wise to him, but they're wise to me. They dope it out I wouldn't be
wastin' time on a horse that hadn't a chance. See what I'm gettin' at? A
pill or the needle would put Chief out of the money."

"Nobody around here would do that," Angus told him.

"They wouldn't hey?" said Dorgan with sarcasm. "Let me tell you that
right in the bushes is the place they put over stuff they couldn't get
by with nowheres else. The things I've seen pulled at these little,
local races would chill your blood. There's a bunch of murderers follows
'em up that'd hamstring a horse or sandbag an owner for a ten-case
note."

"But--" Angus began.

"But--nothing," Dorgan interrupted with contempt. "Don't you s'pose I've
been in the game long enough to know it? There'll be a bunch of tinhorns
and a wreckin' crew of crooked racin' men with a couple of outlaw
horses, all workin' together to skin the suckers. All them Frenches have
to do is to say it's worth fifty to fix any horse. You can maybe tell me
things about raisin' alfalfa, but not about racin'. When a woman gets
into the game, it's serious. After this I'm goin' to sleep right here."

CHAPTER X

BEFORE THE RACE

A few days before the race Dorgan moved Chief to one of half a dozen
sheds on the fair grounds, which a load of lumber and another of straw
made comfortable. There he dwelt with him, giving him easy exercise and
sizing up the other horses.

"Outside this Flambeau there ain't much to worry about," he concluded.
"Only with a field of