"I've got to think of myself," growled Langdon. "If he'd been beat off,
there'd been trouble; the Stewards have got the other race in their crop
a bit yet."

"I'm not blaming you, Langdon, only I was just a trifle afraid that you
were going to beat Porter's mare. He's a friend of mine, and needed a
win badly. I'm not exactly his father confessor, but I'm his banker,
which amounts to pretty much the same thing."

"What about the horse, sir," asked the Trainer.

"We'll see later on. Let him go easy for the present."

"I wonder what he meant by that," Langdon mused to himself, as Crane
moved away. "He don't make nobody a present of a race for love."
Suddenly he stumbled upon a solution of the enigma. "Well, I'm damned if
that wasn't slick; he give me the straight tip to leave Porter to him--
to let him do the plannin'; I see."




VII


Porter was an easy man with his horses. Though he could not afford,
because of his needs, to work out his theory that two-year-olds should
not be raced, yet he utilized it as far as possible by running them at
longer intervals than was general.