spring?"

"Same one. This horse Silver Star was all he had and Cricket used to
ride him himself. Rank quitter. I've seen Caley boot and kick and
slash this bird until he wore himself out; he'd quit just the same.
Wouldn't run a lick after he got into the stretch.

"Then one day Cricket slipped him over at a long price. Don't know
how he did it. Hop, most likely. Got somebody to bet on Silver Star
at 25 to 1 and took quite a little chunk of money out of the ring.
That was Caley's last race; he'd been cheating the undertakers for
years. Before he died he gave the horse to Old Man Curry. They'd been
friends, but if a friend of mine gave me a horse like that and didn't
throw in a dog collar, he couldn't run fast enough to get away from
me. Curry put in an application to the Jockey Club and had the name
changed from Silver Star to Elisha. Won't have anything but Bible
names, the old nut!

"Curry hasn't won with him yet, and I'd hate to be hanging by the
neck until he does, because if ever there was a no-account hound
masquerading with a mane and tail, it's the one you just saw go by
here. He won't gather anything to-morrow. Forget him."

O'Connor hesitated a moment; he was a cautious soul. "Might tell
Grogan and Merritt to look after him," he suggested.

"No need to. And that bullet-headed little nigger wouldn't like
anything better than a chance to holler to the judges. The horse
ain't got a chance, I tell you. Wouldn't have with the best rider in
the world. Forget him."

"Well--just as you say, Al. Broadsword's good enough to beat him, I
reckon."

"Of course he is! Forget this Elisha. Go on and figure just the same
as if he wasn't in the race."

The Sharpshooter and his friends, through their betting
commissioners, backed Broadsword from 4 to 1 to even money. The horse
was owned by O'Connor and ridden by Jockey Grogan. Bald Eagle,
Amphion, and Remorseful were supposed to be the contenders, but their
riders jogged blithely to the post with Broadsword tickets in their
bootlegs and riding orders of a sort to make those pasteboards
valuable.

Jockey Moseby Jones, on Elisha, was overlooked when these favours
were surreptitiously distributed, but his bootleg was not empty.
There was a ticket in it which called for twenty-two dollars in case
Elisha won--a two-dollar bet at 10 to 1. It was put there by Old Man
Curry just before the bugle blew.

"Bring him home in front, Mose," said the old man.

"Sutny will!" grinn