. But three legs were all Smoky needed to keep him
out of Pop's reach. Pop forgot his rheumatism and ran pretty fast for a
man his age, and when Bud arrived Pop's vocabulary had limbered up to a
more surprising activity than his legs.

"Want to bet on yourself, Pop?" Bud called out when Pop was running
back and forth, hopefully trying to corner Smoky in a rocky draw. "I'm
willing to risk a dollar on you, anyway."

Pop whirled upon him and hurled sentences not written in the book of
Parlor Entertainment. The gist of it was that he had been trying all
the week to have a talk with Bud, and Bud had plainly avoided him after
promising to act upon Pop's advice and run so as to make some money.

"Well, I made some," Bud defended. "If you didn't, it's just because you
didn't bet strong enough."

"I want to look at that horse's hind foot," Pop insisted.

"No use. He's too lame to run against Boise. You can see that yourself."

Pop eyed Bud suspiciously, pulling his beard. "Are you fixin' to
double-cross me, young feller?" he wanted to know. "I went and made some
purty big bets on this race. If you think yo're goin' to fool ole Pop,
you 'll wish you hadn't. You got enemies already in this valley, lemme
tell yuh. The Muleshoe ain't any bunch to fool with, and I'm willing
to say 't they're laying fer yuh. They think," he added shrewdly, "'t
you're a spotter, or something. Air yuh?"

"Of course I am, Pop! I've spotted a way to make money and have
fun while I do it." Bud looked at the old man, remembered Marian's
declaration that Pop was not very reliable, and groped mentally for a
way to hearten the old man without revealing anything better kept to
himself, such as the immediate effect of a horse hair tied just above
a horse's hoof, also the immediate result of removing that hair.
Wherefore, he could not think of much to say, except that he would not
attempt to run a lame horse against Boise.

"All I can say is, to-morrow morning you keep your eyes open, Pop, and
your tongue between your teeth. And no matter what comes up, you use
your own judgment."

To-morrow morning Pop showed that he was taking Bud's advice. When the
crowd began to gather--much earlier than usual, by the way, and much
larger than any crowd Bud had seen in the valley--Pop was trotting here
and there, listening and pulling his whiskers and eyeing Bud sharply
whenever that young man appeared in his vicinity.

Bud led Smoky up at noon--and Smoky was still