ulled
down the prize last year, is goin' to run fer you, ain't he' I asks,
never suspicionin' that he'd say anythin' but 'yes.'

"'Not any,' he answers, grinnin' satisfied like; 'we've got another man
this year, an' a streak o' greased lightnin' is plumb slow an' ploddin'
alongside him.'

"'An' who is this yere maverick?' I asks him, feelin' like somebody'd hit
me when I wasn't lookin'.

"'Johnson is his brand,' says the sport; 'stick around a while an' I'll
point him out t' yuh. There he is now,' he says sudden-like, pointin' to
a guy amblin' along the sidewalk with half a dozen kids taggin' at his
heels, 'there's the guy what's goin' to make your runners look like
candidates from a young ladies' finishing school. Take a good look at
him, Chip, so yuh'll know him the next time yuh see him.'

"Waal, boys, I took a good look, as this sport suggests, and I'm a
pop-eyed tenderfoot if I didn't recognize the guy right off. I couldn't
jest place him at first, but in a few seconds I remembered where I'd seen
him last."

"An' where was that?" questioned Sandy, while everybody listened eagerly
for his answer.

"It was at a function thet come near bein' a lynchin' party," answered
Chip. "I was up in a little town over the Canada border at the time, an'
they had jest had a race like this yere one we-all has on the Fourth o'
July, only they ain't no sech institution there, them folks bein' nothin'
but benighted Britishers and Frenchmen. Howsum-ever, they'd had a race,
and this maverick what's pointed out to me in Helena had won the race,
together with most o' the loose change in the town. Suddenly a guy in the
crowd yells out: 'That feller's a 'ringer.' I seen him run in an Eastern
professional race onct.'"

"Waal, thet was like puttin' a match to powder, and them people was goin'
to string the guy up, only the sheriff came along jest then and stopped
the proceedin's. So that's when I see this party last."

"Yes, but he might not have been a 'ringer'," suggested Bert, who had
come up and joined the group while Chip was speaking. "He might have
been square, but the man that accused him probably had lost money, and
may have accused him just to get even. You don't have to prove much to an
angry mob when they want to believe what you're telling them, anyway."

"Yes, I thought o' that," replied Chip, "but a few weeks arterward I come
across an old newspaper with this party's picture engraved on the
sportin' page, an' undernea