s and improvised
dance steps.

"Talk 'bout luck!" said he, morosely. "You know 'at flat-foot Swede
whut swipes faw Mist' O'Conneh? Hungry Hanson, 'ey calls him. Well,
he goes crazy 'ith 'e heat an' flang 'em bones jus' like he's got 'em
ejicated. Done tossed out nine straight licks, boss. Seems to me
'at's mo' luck 'an a Swede ought to have!"

"Mose," said Old Man Curry suddenly, "Job was no hossman."

"I neveh 'cused him of it," replied Mose sulkily.

"A hossman wouldn't have wanted his adversary to write a book. If
he'd said _make_ a book, now ... but the best way to get square with
an adversary is to have him start a hoss in the same race with you,
Mose."

"I'll take yo' word faw it, boss," said Mose. "When you go talkin'
'bout Job an' Sol'mun an' 'em Bible folks, you got me ridin' on a
track I don't know nothin' 'bout. Nothin' a-a-atall."

It was Tuesday afternoon and little Mose was struggling into his
riding boots. The other jockeys dressed in the jockeys' room at the
paddock inclosure, but Mose found it pleasanter to don the silks in
the tack room of Old Man Curry's barn, which also served him as a
sleeping apartment. The old man sat on the edge of Mose's cot,
speaking earnestly and slapping the palm of his left hand with the
fingers of his right, as if to lend emphasis to his words.

"The big thing is to get him away from the post. I want Elijah out
there in front when you turn for home. With his early speed, he ought
to be leading into the stretch. Elisha will come from behind; Engle
is smart enough for that. He'll have to pass you somewhere, because
Elijah will begin to peter out after he's gone half a mile. Pull in
as close to Elisha as you can, but not so close that Merritt can
claim a foul, and--you know the rest."

Mose nodded soberly. "Sutny do, boss. But I neveh knowed 'at ol'
'Lisha----"

"That'll do," said Old Man Curry sternly. "There's lots of things you
don't know, Mose."

"Yes, suh," said the little negro, subsiding. "Quite a many."

Later the Bald-faced Kid came to Old Man Curry in the paddock.

"Elisha looks awful good," said he, "and they're commencing to set in
the checks. He opened at 4 to 1, went up to 6, and they've hammered
him down to 2 to 1 now. I hear they're playing the bulk of their
money in the pool rooms all over the coast.... Elisha looks as if he
could win, eh?"

Old Man Curry combed his beard.

"You can't always tell by the looks of a melon what's inside it, my