"--and he smiled triumphantly. "Yes, Col'nel, I'll
let him do all that if--if God'll let it be. But God won't let it
be!"

Colonel Troup arose disgusted--hot. "What do you mean, old man. Are
you crazy, sah? Give me back my word--"

"Wait--no--no," said the Bishop. "Col'nel, you're a man of yo'
word--wait!"

And he arose and was gone.

The Colonel swore soundly. He walked around and damned everything in
sight. He fumbled his pistol in his pocket, and wondered how he could
break his word and yet keep it.

There was no way, and he went off to take a drink.

Bud, the tears running down his cheeks--was rubbing Ben Butler down,
and saying: "Great hoss--great hoss!"

Of all, he and the Bishop had not given up.

"I'm afeard we'll have to give it up, Bishop," said Jack.

"Me, me give it up, Jack? Me an' Ben Butler quit like yeller dogs?
Why, we're jes' beginnin' to fight--with God's help."

Then he thought a moment: "Fetch me some cotton."

He took it and carefully packed it in the old horse's ears.

"It was a small trick, that yellin' and frightening the ole hoss,"
said Jack.

"Ben Butler," said the old man, as he stepped back and looked at the
horse, "Ben Butler, I've got you now where God's got me--you can't
see an' you can't hear. You've got to go by faith, by the lines of
faith. But I'll be guidin' 'em, ole hoss, as God guides me--by
faith."

The audience sat numbed and nerveless when they scored for the last
heat. The old pacer's gallant fight had won them all--and now--now
after winning two heats, with only one more to win--now to lose at
last. For he could not win--not over a mare as fresh and full of
speed as that mare now seemed to be. And she, too, had but one heat
to win.

But Col. Troup had been thinking and he stopped the old man as he
drove out on the track.

"Been thinkin', parson, 'bout that promise, an' I'll strike a bargain
with you, sah. You say God ain't goin' to let him win this heat an'
race an' so forth, sah."

The Bishop smiled: "I ain't give up, Col'nel--not yet."

"Well, sah, if God does let Travis win, I take it from yo' reasoning,
sah, that he's a sorry sort of a God to stand in with a fraud an'
I'll have nothin' to do with Him. I'll tell all about it."

"If that's the way you think--yes," said the old man,
solemnly--"yes--tell it--but God will never stan' in with fraud."

"We'll see," said the Colonel. "I'll keep my word if--if--you win!"

Off they went as before, the ol