"It"s too bad to see that easy money going away from us, Pink," he confessed.
Jake Block spent but little time that afternoon in the grand-stand by the side of Beauty Phillips and her mother. From the beginning of the racing he was first in the stables and then in the paddock with an anxious eye. He was lined up at the fence opposite the barrier for the start of the fateful fourth, and he stood there, after the horses had jumped away, to watch his great little Whipsaw around the course. But Beauty Phillips was not without company. Wallingford sauntered up at the sound of the mounting bell and sat confidently by her.
"Did you get it all down, Jimmy?" she asked.
"Every cent," said he, wiping his brow nervously. "Did you?"
"Mother and I are broke if Whipsaw don"t win," she confessed with dry lips. "What do you suppose makes Mr. Block look up here with such a poison face every two or three minutes?"
Wallingford chuckled hugely.
"The odds," he explained. "I"ve cut them to slivers. I bet all mine and Blackie"s money with the Phelps crowd, then turned around and bet all ours and theirs again. Say, it"s murder if I lose. Not even a fancy murder, either."
Blackie Daw, attended by three of his guard, came over to join them, Blackie evidencing a strong disposition to linger in the rear, for he was taking a desperate chance with desperate men. If Whipsaw lost he had his course mapped out--down the nearest steps of the grand-stand and out to the carriage-gate as fast as his legs would carry him.
There, J. Rufus" automobile was to be waiting, all cranked up and trembling, ready to dart away the moment Blackie should jump in. Just as Blackie and the others joined Wallingford and Beauty Phillips, Larry Teller came breathlessly up from the betting-shed.
"There"s something doing on that Whipsaw horse," he declared excitedly. "He opened at twenty to one--and in fifteen minutes of play--either somebody that knows something--or a wagonload of fool-money--had backed him down to evens. Think of it! Evens!"
There was a sudden roar from the crowd, more like a gigantic groan than any other sound. They were off! One horse was left at the post, but it was not Whipsaw. Two others trailed behind. The other five were away, well bunched. At the quarter, three horses drew into the lead, Whipsaw just behind them. At the half, one of the three was dropping back, and Whipsaw slowly overtaking it. Now his nose was at her flanks; now at the saddle; then the jockeys were abreast; then the white jacket and red sleeves of Whipsaw"s rider could be seen to the fore of the opposing jockey, with the two leaders just ahead. At the three-quarters, three horses were neck and neck again, but this time Whipsaw was among them. Down the stretch they came pounding, and then, and not until then, did Whipsaw, a lithe, shining little brown streak, strike into the best stride of which he was capable. A thousand hoa.r.s.e watchers, as they came to the seven-eighths, roared encouragement to the horses. Whipsaw"s name was much among them, but only in tones of anger. Men and even women ran down to the rail and stood on tiptoe with red faces, shrieking for Fashion to come on, begging and praying Fashion to win, for Fashion carried most of the money; and the shrieking became an agony as the horses flashed under the wire, Whipsaw a good, clean half length in the lead!
[Ill.u.s.tration: Beauty Phillips discovered she was on her feet]
As the roaring stopped in one high, abrupt wail, Beauty Phillips, who never knew emotion or excitement, suddenly discovered, to her vast surprise, that she was on her feet! that she was clutching her throat for its hoa.r.s.eness! that she was dripping with perspiration! that she was faint and weak and giddy! that her blood was pounding and her eyeb.a.l.l.s hurt; and that she had been, from the stretch down, jumping violently up and down and shrieking the name of Whipsaw! Whipsaw!
Whipsaw! Whipsaw!
A frenzied hand grabbed Blackie Daw by the elbow.
"Duck, for G.o.d"s sake, Blackie!" implored the shaking voice of Billy Banting. "Go down to the old joint on Thirty-third Street and wait for us. We"ll split up that stake and all make a get-away."
"Not on your life!" returned Blacked calmly, and pulled Wallingford around toward him by the shoulder. "I shall have great pleasure in turning over to Mr. Wallingford the combined bets of the Broadway Syndicate against that lovely little record-breaker, Whipsaw."
"It"s a good horse," said Wallingford with forced calmness, and then he began to chuckle, his broad shoulders shaking and his breast heaving; "and it was well named. I fawncy the Broadway Syndicate book will now go out of business--and with no chance to welch."
"All we wise people knew about it," Blackie condescendingly explained to the quartet. "You see, I am running the National Clockers"
a.s.sociation."
Before the voiceless Broadway Syndicate was through gasping over this piece of news, Jake Block came stalking through the grand-stand.
Though elated over his victory and flushed with his winnings, he nevertheless had time to cast a bitter scowl in the direction of Beauty Phillips.
"The next time I hand any woman a tip you may cut my arm off!" he declared. "I"m through with you!"
"Who"s that?" asked Larry Teller, glaring after the man who had mentioned the pregnant word "tip."
"Jake Block, the owner of Whipsaw," Wallingford was pleased to inform him.
"It"s a frame-up!" shouted Billy Banting.
A strong left hand clutched desperately at Blackie Daw"s coat and tore the top b.u.t.ton off, and an equally strong right hand grabbed into Blackie Daw"s inside coat-pocket. It was empty, Pickins found, just as a stronger hand than his own gripped him until he winced with pain.
"What have you done with the stakes?" shrieked Pickins, trying to throw off that grip, but not turning.
"What"s it your business? But, if you want to know, all that stake-money was bet in the shed and in the books about town--on Whipsaw to win!"
The broad-shouldered man who had edged up quite near to them during the race, and who had interfered with Pickins, now stepped in front of the members of the defunct Broadway Syndicate. They only took one good look at him, and then fell back quite clamily. In the broad-shouldered giant they had recognized Harvey Willis, the quite capable Broadway policeman and friend of Wallingford, off for the day in his street clothes.
"Run along, little ones, and play tricks on the ignorant country folks from Harlem and Flatbush," advised Beauty Phillips as she took Wallingford"s arm and turned away with him. "You"ve been whipsawed!"
She was exceptionally gracious to J. Rufus that evening, but for the first time in many days he was extremely thoughtful. A vague unrest possessed him and it grew as the Beauty became more gracious. He guessed that he could marry her if he wished, but somehow the idea did not please him as it might have done a few weeks earlier. He liked the Beauty perhaps even better than before, but somehow she was not quite the type of woman for him, and he had not realized it until she brought him face to face with the problem.
"By the way," he said as he bid her good night, "I think I"ll take a little run about the country for a while. I"m a whole lot tired of this man"s town."
CHAPTER XVII
J. RUFUS SEEKS FOR PROFITABLE INVESTMENT IN THE COUNTRY
A rattling old carryall, drawn by one k.n.o.bby yellow horse and driven by a decrepit patriarch of sixty, stopped with a groan and a creak and a final rattle at the door of the weather-beaten Atlas Hotel, and a grocery "drummer," a beardless youth with pink cheeks, jumped hastily out and rushed into the clean but bare little office, followed as hastily by a grizzled veteran of the road who sold dry-goods and notions and wore gaudy young clothes. Wallingford emerged much more slowly, as became his ponderous size. He was dressed in a green summer suit of ineffable fabric, wore green low shoes, green silk hose, a green felt hat, and a green bow tie, below which, in the bosom of his green silk negligee shirt, glowed a huge diamond. Richness and bigness were the very essence of him, and the aged driver, recognizing true worth when he saw it, gave a jerk at his dust-crusted old cap as he addressed him.
""Tain"t no use to hurry now," he quavered. "Them other two"ll have the good rooms."
J. Rufus, from natural impulse, followed in immediately. There was no one behind the little counter, but the young grocery drummer, having hastily inspected the spa.r.s.e entries of the preceding days, had registered himself for room two.
"There ain"t a single transient in the house, Billy," he said, turning to the dry-goods and notion salesman, "so I"ll just put you down for number three."
A buxom young woman came out of the adjoining dining-room, wiping her red hands and arms upon a water-spattered gingham ap.r.o.n.
"Three of us, Molly," said the older salesman. "Hustle up the dinner,"
and out of pure friendliness he started to chuck her under the chin, whereat she wheeled and slapped him a resounding whack and ran away laughing. This vigorous retort, being entirely expected, was pa.s.sed without comment, and the two commercial travelers took off their coats to "wash up" at the tin basins in the corner. The aged driver, intercepting them to collect, came in to Wallingford, who, noting the custom, had already subscribed his name with a flourish upon the register.
"Two shillin"," quavered the ancient one at his elbow.
Wallingford gave him twice the amount he asked for, and the old man was galvanized into instant fluttering activity. He darted out of the door with surprising agility, and returned with two pieces of Wallingford"s bright and shining luggage, which he surveyed reverently as he placed them in front of the counter. Two more pieces, equally rich, he brought, and on the third trip the proprietor"s son, a brawny boy of fifteen, clad in hickory shirt, blue overalls and plow shoes, and with his sleeves rolled up to his shoulders, helped him in with Wallingford"s big sole-leather dresser trunk.
"Gee!" said the boy to Wallingford, beaming upon this array of expensive baggage. "What do you sell?"
"White elephants, son," replied Wallingford, so gravely that the boy took two minutes to decide that the rich stranger was "fresh."
It was not until dinner was called that any one displayed the least interest in the register, and then the proprietor, a tall, cowboy-like man, with drooping mustaches and a weather-browned face, came in with his trousers tucked into his top boots.
"h.e.l.lo, Joe! h.e.l.lo, Billy!" he said, nodding to the two traveling men.
"How"s business?"
"Rotten!" returned the grocery drummer.
"Fine!" a.s.serted the dry-goods salesman. "Our house hasn"t done so much business in five years." _Sotto voce_, he turned to the young drummer. "Never give it away that business is on the b.u.m," he said out of his years of experience.