Thoroughbreds

That afternoon Crane took a train to Brookfield. A visit to the village post office disclosed a hidden jewel. As far as Crane was concerned the fate of the two men was held in t...

“That's just where your cleverness will come in,” suavely answered Crane. “There's no hurry, and there are always people looking for foolish money. There's one such in Chicago,...

Accustomed to reading Langdon's mind, Crane surmised from the Trainer's manner that the latter had something that he had not yet broached. Their talk had been somewhat desultory...

“I'll put a rubber bit in his mouth, to soften it,” he pumped brokenly. “Let out a wrap, girl, and we'll breeze them up the stretch; come on. Carter, get to the front with the m...

“Quite a feeler, Mister Jockey,” thought Langdon to himself; “it's news you want, eh?” Then he answered aloud, with a diplomacy born of many years of turf tuition: “Fairish sort...

“Can I ride Lauzanne now?” the girl asked, and her voice choked a little--it might have been the nervous excitement, or thankfulness at the success of her plan in this its first...

The gravity of the situation calmed Mortimer, and his mind worked with a cool method that surprised him. Bit by bit he pieced it out. The boy, inconsistently enough, had reasone...

“Lucretia,” ejaculated Faust. “She'll have a rosy time beatin' Dutchy on their last race. They'll put a better boy up on the colt next time, an' he ought to come home all by him...

A slight smile relaxed the habitually drawn muscles of Mike's grim visage; it was moons since he had heard anybody talk of a horse “coming in first;” he was indeed a green betto...

The cashier straightened up, threw his head back, and actually smiled. He had scored linguistically--by a clever manipulation of the sentence he had made the some one who had st...

Then he spoke a little lower, as a man utters unfamiliar words for the first time. “Your mother said that Providence would look after you. Sounds strange, doesn't it, girl? But...

“I'm takin' it against the stable just because it's the usual thing to couple it in the bettin. It's a million to one against Lauzanne's starting if Lucretia keeps well.”

Mike Gaynor had taken his place on the little platform at the top of the steps leading to the stand. He was watching the race with intense interest. Would Lauzanne do his best f...

Allis brushed from her eyes the tears of sympathy that had welled into them, and, raising her voice, spoke bravely, clinging to the vain hope: “Lucretia is game, father--she may...

His mind worked somewhat faster than his fingers; several new problems had been given it to labor over within the compass of a single moon. That horse racing should ever become...

“Don't talk that way, Mr. Crane, please don't. I know you think that what you say is right, but what difference does it all make to me? You know what love is like, you say it ha...

Crane was supposed to possess a rare magnetism; most certainly men came under his influence with a noiseless, cheerful complaisance. It may have been that there was a slight fas...

“It's not Grant at all,” replied Dixon, rubbing the palms of his hands together thoughtfully--a way he had when he wished to concentrate in concrete form the result of some deep...

“Lucretia's doing better,” her companion added a few seconds later. “If I were given to sentiment, I should say her gallop was the poetry of motion. She deserves to win. But hon...

“I am afraid there was no one to shield but himself--everything points to this conclusion. The money was locked up, he had the keys, no one touched them--except your brother, an...

“Mather, is it?” began Gaynor, “it's just this, Miss Allis; if yer father thinks I'm goin' to stand by an' see good colts spiled in their timper just because a rapscallion b'y h...

“Bet yer life the bookies won't part till the numbers of the placed horses an' riders are up on that board again. They've run them down, don't you see?” chimed in the Tout.

Bad horse as Langdon knew Lauzanne to be, it occurred to him that Porter had planned a clever coup. He had an interview with Crane over the subject, but his master did not at al...

“The young gentleman's got a bit shook up, sir; nothin' bad loike,” Mike broke in hastily. The diplomatic rider, “nothin' bad,” was added for Mrs. Porter's benefit, his quick ey...

Less than a hundred miles from the city of Gotham, across broad green fields, dotted into squares and oblong valleys by full-leafed maple, and elm, and mulberry, was the village...

The girl laughed outright; how droll it was to see a man trying to make himself unhappy when there was nothing but happiness in the world. Through the open window she could hear...