Thoroughbreds Part 48

"That's our horse," declared Old Bill, as Lauzanne pa.s.sed. "He's all right, bet yer life; he's fit ter go all day. De geezer as trains him ain't no mug. Let's go up in de stand, where we can see de whole show; den we'll come down an' cash in. Say, pard, if dis goes through I'll blow you off to a bottle of de best; wine ain't none too good fer dis coop."

Altogether it was as though Destiny had found pleasant domicile in the ancient clothing of Old Bill, and was using their unique wearer as a protective agent to ward off evil from both Mortimer and the girl. As they jogged toward the starting post Allis allowed Lauzanne to lag; she wished to avoid Redpath. But the Indian was a horse of uncertain temperament, and presently, with a foolish side rush, he cannoned fair into Lauzanne. In the melee Redpath looked full into Allis's eyes at short range. His face went white in an instant.

"You!" he cried, pulling hard at his horse's mouth; "it's you, Miss--"

He stopped suddenly. "G.o.d! I'm glad I know this," he jerked between set teeth, as he fought the Indian, who was nearly pulling him out of the saddle.

"It's because he'll gallop for you, isn't it? You didn't think I was a wrong one--it wasn't because you couldn't trust me you took the mount away, was it?"

The Indian, quieted by the sleepy Chestnut, was going steadier. "No; it's because Lauzanne won't give his running for anyone but me," the girl answered.

The boy remained silent, thinking over why he was on the Indian. There was a moral obliquity about his present position; the new light of his discovery showed him this strongly. His feelings had been played upon by the owner of the Indian, at Langdon's instigation.

He had been told that the Porters had not given him the mount on Lauzanne because they distrusted him. He had been put on the horse to make running for The Dutchman. There was nothing really patently dishonest about this arrangement, and Redpath's mind had been dulled to fine discrimination by the idea that he was falsely distrusted.

Presently the boy spoke with sharp decision, in quick broken sentences, for they were nearing the Starter. "I'm in to make the running; this crock's got no license to win. Don't you bother about him--he'll come back to the others fast enough when he's done. When you want an opening to get through just come bang into me--I'll be next the rail; yell 'Lauzanne,' an' I'll pull out. I'll give them blasted crooks something to stare at. Don't gallop your mount's head off chasing this sprinter; he'll be beat when we swing into the stretch. Don't go wide at the turn; you can have my place; I'll make it wide for something else though."

They were at the post. Allis had not spoken; she had listened gratefully to Redpath's string of kindly directions. The presence of a friend in the race cheered her; the discovery she had dreaded had come as a blessing.

x.x.xVI

Crane's words had started a train of thought in Langdon's mind. All at once he remembered that the face of Lauzanne's rider had a dream-like familiarity. He had not given it much thought before; but his owner's suggestion that the boy was like Alan Porter echoed in his ears. He had wondered where Dixon had got this new boy; why he was putting him up on Lauzanne instead of Redpath; it seemed a foolish thing to give the mount to an apprentice when a good jockey was to be had. Could it be that it really was Alan. The whole family were natural-born jockeys, father and son, even the girl, Allis.

Langdon knew nothing of Alan Porter's movements--had not been interested enough to know. He had heard derogatory remarks about Redpath's riding of Lucretia in the Brooklyn Handicap; the Porters, no doubt dissatisfied--suspicious of the jockey--had put up Alan to insure an honest ride.

Langdon had thought these thoughts as he pa.s.sed swiftly from the paddock to the stand inclosure, where he stood not far from the rail, trying to get a good look at the lad on Lauzanne. Allis's persistently averted face thwarted this. The boy was inscribed on the jockey board "Al Mayne;" the permit to ride must be under that name. If it were really Alan Porter, why had he been called Mayne? But the boy had retained the name "Al"--that was a contraction of Alan, no doubt.

While Langdon labored over the problem of Mayne's Ident.i.ty he had watched the horses at the post through his gla.s.ses. The Dutchman was behaving well, his trifle of eagerness to break away was even better than Lauzanne's indolent indifference. The other five were acting as three-year-olds are wont to act--with erratic indecision; one minute violent desire, and the next obstinate reluctance characterizing their interminable twistings, backings, and plungings. It was not for long; a neck or a length at the start meant little when a mile and a half stretched its tiring length between them and the finish post.

Langdon's perplexity was cut short by the cry, "They're off!" the jingle of a bell, and the scurrying of many feet, as eager men rushed for higher points of observation in the stand.

As the seven horses came thundering by, pulling double in eager ignorance of the long journey that lay before them, Langdon saw with evil satisfaction that the Indian was well out in the lead.

The Dutchman was sixth, and behind, with a short awkward strength in his gallop, loafed Lauzanne.

There was smoothness in the stride of Hanover's big son, The Dutchman; and his trainer, as he watched him swing with strong grace around the first turn, mentally fingered the ten thousand dollars that would shortly be his.

"That skate win!" he sneered, as Lauzanne followed; "he gallops like a fat pig. He can't live the pace--he can't live the pace," he repeated, and his voice was mellow with a cheerful exultation.

His observations seemed eminently truthful; Allis's horse trailed farther and farther behind the others. Out in front galloped with unseeming haste the Indian--a brown blotch of swift-gliding color. Two lengths from his glinting heels raced four horses in a bunch--two bays, a gray, and a black; so close together that they formed a small mosaic of mottled hue against the drab-gray background of the course stables beyond. Then The Dutchman, with his powerful stride, full of easy motion--a tireless gallop that would surely land him the winner, Langdon thought, as he hung with breathless interest on every move of Westley's body.

Up in the stand Old Bill was expressing in florid racetrack speech to Mortimer his deductions.

"Days a good kid on Larcen. See what he's doin'; he's trailin' 'em.

Dat's where our horse gits it; he's a stretch runner, he is. Dey'll have bellows to mend when he tackles 'em."

To Mortimer it appeared very much as though the other horses were too fast for Lauzanne. "Isn't he losing?" he asked of his exuberant friend.

"Losin' nut'in'! De kid ain't moved on him yet. De others is gallopin'

der heads off; dey're chasm' de crazy skate in front. Dere's only two jocks in de race worth a d.a.m.n--Bill Westley an' de kid on our horse.

He knows he's got to beat Dutchy, an' he's lyin' handy by. When you see Dutchy move up Larcen'll come away, or I'm a goat."

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 for the girl--or would he sulk?

He saw the terrific pace that the Indian had set the others. Would it discourage their horse. His judgment told him that this fast pace could not last, and that Lauzanne could gallop as he was going from end to end of the mile and a half; even faster if he so wished. Would his rider have the patient steadiness of nerve to wait for this fulfillment of the inevitable or would she become rattled and urge the horse. Mike set his teeth, and his nails were driven hard into his rough palms as he strained in sympathy with the girl's quietude.

How long the Indian held on in his mad lead! Perhaps even he might upset all clever calculation and last long enough to win. Already the gray, White Moth, had drawn out from the bunch and was second; the other three were dropping back in straggling order to The Dutchman, who was still running as he had been, strong. That was at the mile. At the mile and an eighth, White Moth was at the Indian's heels; The Dutchman had moved up into third place, two lengths away; and Lauzanne had become merged in the three that were already beaten. At the mile and a quarter a half thrill of hope came to Mike, for Lauzanne was clear of the ruck, and surely gaining on the leaders. And still his rider was lying low on the withers, just a blue blur on the dark gold of the Chestnut.

"Bot' t'umbs! but they're a pair," muttered the Irishman; "be me soul, I t'ink they'll win."

At the bottom turn into the stretch Mike could see that White Moth and The Dutchman had closed up on the Indian, so that they swung around the corner as one horse.

"Gad, she's shut off!" he muttered. It was a living wall, and through little c.h.i.n.ks in its quivering face he could see specks of blue close up where raced Lauzanne.

"Poor gurl!" he gasped, "they've got her in a pocket. d.a.m.n them b'ys.

Why did she hug the rail--she's fair t'rowed away the last chance."

Halfway up the steps stood Langdon, and his coa.r.s.e, evil face took on a look of unholy joy as Lauzanne was blotted into oblivion by the horses in front.

"Pocketed, by G.o.d! Clever Mister Dixon to put up a kid like that ag'in Westley an' the others," he sneered.

Then a deafening roar went up from the stand. Somebody thrust a pair of broad shoulders in front of Mike's face; he leaned out far past the intruder, and saw the Indian sway drunkenly in his stride away from the rail, carrying White Moth and The Dutchman out; and into the opening he had left, glued to the rail, crept the chestnut form of Lauzanne.

A wild yell of Irish joy escaped Mike; then he waited. Now it would be a race; but Lauzanne was trying, trying all by himself, for the rider was as still as death. Already the clamor of many voices was splitting the air; all over the stand it was, "The favorite wins! The Dutchman wins!"

Even yet there was no beckoning call for Lauzanne; but Mike knew. He had said to Allis before she went out, "If ye ever get level wit' 'em in the straight, ye can win."

And now Lauzanne's yellow head was even with the others; and soon it was in front. And then there were only two battling--Lauzanne and The Dutchman; and on the Bay, Westley was riding with whip and spur.

"In a walk--in a walk, I tell you!" fairly screamed Old Bill, clutching at Mortimer's arm; "didn't I tell you? We're a tousand to de good. Look at him, look at him!" He had climbed halfway up Mortimer's strong back in his excitement. "Look at de kid! Never moved--in a walk, in a walk!

Larcen all the way for a million!"

His voice generally weak and tattered like his clothes; had risen to a shrill scream of exultation.

It was past all doubt. Lauzanne, a length in front of The Dutchman, was opposite the stand; in two seconds they had flashed by the Judges' box, and Lauzanne had won.

The wave of humanity that swept down the steps carried Mike in its front wash. He took his stand close to the Judges' box; there he would be handy for whatever might be needed. He saw Langdon with a face dark and lowering, full of an evil discontent, standing there too. Back the seven runners cantered. Lauzanne's rider saluted the judge with whip, and slipping from the horse stripped him of the saddle with deft fingers, and pa.s.sed quickly into the scales. The weight was right. One after another the boys weighed.

Watching, Mike saw Langdon pa.s.s up to the Stewards. There was a short consultation, the hush of something wrong, and a murmur of an objection.

"What's the matter?" a voice questioned in Mike's ear. It was Alan Porter that had spoken.

Mike pushed his way to the small gate, even through it, that led up to the Stewards' Stand. As he did so Langdon came back down the steps. One of the Stewards, following him with quick eyes, saw Mike and beckoned with a finger.

"There's an objection to the rider of Lauzanne," said the official; "Trainer Langdon says Alan Porter rode the horse under a permit belonging to a boy named Mayne."

"He's mistook, sir." answered Mike, respectfully; "there's Alan Porter standin' down there in the crowd. I'll sind him up, sir, an' ye can ask him yerself."