that mare showed.

Colonel Troup came up: "By gad, sah, Bishop--don't give up--you've
got one mo' chance. Be as game as the ole hoss."

"We are game, sir--but--but, will you do as I tell you an' swear to
me on yo' honor as a gentleman never to speak till I say the word?
Will you swear to keep sacred what I show you, until I let you tell?"

The Colonel turned red: "What do you mean, sah?"

"Swear it, swear it, on yo' honor as a gentleman--"

"On my honor as a gentleman, sah? I swear it."

"Go," said the old man quickly, "an' look in the mouth of the mare
they are jes' bringin' in--the mare that won that heat. Go, an'
remember yo' honor pledged. Go an' don't excite suspicion."

The old man sat down and, as he waited, he thought. Never before had
he thought so hard. Never had such a burden been put upon him. When
he looked up Colonel Troup stood pale and silent before him--pale
with close-drawn lips and a hot, fierce, fighting gleam in his eyes.

"You've explained it, sah--" he said. Then he fumbled his pistol in
his pocket. "Now--now, give me back my promise, my word. I have two
thousand dollars at stake, and--and clean sport, sah,--clean sport.
Give me back my word."

"Sit down," said the old man quietly.

The Colonel sat down so still that it was painful. He was calm but
the Bishop saw how hard the fight was.

Then the old man broke out: "I can't--O God, I can't! I can't _make_
a character, why should I _take_ one? It's so easy to take a word--a
nod--it is gone! And if left maybe it 'ud come agin. Richard
Travis--it looks bad--he may be bad--but think what he may do yet--if
God but touch him? No man's so bad but that God can't touch
him--change him. We may live to see him do grand and noble
things--an' God will touch him," said the old man hotly, "he will
yet."

"If you are through with me," said Colonel Troup, coolly, "and will
give me back my promise, I'll go and touch him--yes, damn him, I'll
shoot him as he should be."

"But I ain't gwine to give it back," smiled the old man.

Colonel Troup flushed: "What'll you do, then? Let him rob you an' me,
sah? Steal my two thousand, and Flecker's? Your purse that you've
already won--yours--yours, right this minute? Rob the public in a
fake race, sah? You've won the purse, it is yours, sah. He forfeited
it when he brought out that other mare. Think what you are doing,
sah!"

"Cap'n Tom an' Shiloh, too"--winced the old man. "But I forgot--you
don't kno'--yes