, thin he's mistook, that's all."

"Who is it Mike--Shandy?"

"That's him, Miss. He's the divil on wheels, bangin' thim horses about
as though he was King Juba."

Allis saw that Gaynor was indeed angry.

"I'll speak to father about him, Mike," she answered; "I won't have the
horses abused."

"Mark my words, Miss Allis, Diablo'll take it out of his hide some
day. The b'y'll monkey wit' him once too often, then there'll be no b'y
left."

"May we see the horses, Mike--are they having their lie-down, or
anything?"

"Not yet, Miss; they're gettin' the rub-down now; don't ye hear Diablo
bastin' the boords av his stall wid that handy off hind-foot av his?"

"There's a filly for yer life," exclaimed the Trainer, rapturously,
as he opened gently the door of Lucretia's box stall. "There's the
straightest filly iver looked through a halter," he continued, putting
his arm with the gentleness of a woman over the brown mare's beautiful
neck. "Come here, ould girl," he said, coaxingly, as he drew the
haltered head toward the visitors.

Mortimer looked with interest at the big, comfortable box stall,
littered a foot deep with bright, clean, yellow straw. How contented and
at home the mare appeared! It seemed almost a complete recompense, this
attentive care, for the cruelty he imagined race horses suffered.

"You don't tie her up?" he asked.

"Tie her up!" ejaculated Mike, a fine Celtic scorn in his voice; "I'd
rather tie up a wife--if I had one," he added by way of extenuation.
"No man would tie up a mare worth tin thousand dollars if she's worth a
cent, an' take chances av her throwin' hersilf in the halter; av coorse
she's hitched fer a bit after a gallop while she's havin' a rub-down,
but that's all."

Lucretia's black nozzle came timidly forward, and the soft, velvety
upper lip snuggled Allis's cheek.

"She knows ye, Miss," said Mike. "That's the way wit' horses--they're
like children; they know friends, an' ye can't fool thim. Now she's
sizin' ye up, Mister," as Lucretia sniffed suspiciously at Mortimer's
chin, keeping a wary eye on him. "She'll know if ye like horses or not,
an' I'd back her opinion agin fifty min's oaths."

Allis watched with nervous interest the investigation. She almost felt
that if Lucretia liked her companion--well, it would be something less
to dislike in him, at all events. Lucretia seemed turning the thing over
in her mind, trying to think it out. There was some mystery about this
new