said he at length, "seeing as how you know so much, I'm
going to tell you something more 'bout that 'Lisha hoss. He used to
have another name once."

"Silver Star," nodded the Kid. "I looked him up in the form charts."

Old Man Curry nodded.

"Eddie Caley--him they called the Cricket--owned the hoss in the
first place. Raised him from a yearling. Now understand, I ain't
excusing the Cricket for what he done, and I ain't blaming him
neither. He was sick most of the time, and a sick man gets his
notions sort of twisted like. Maybe he figured the race track owed
him something for taking away his health. I don't know. He wasn't no
hand to talk.

"Anyhow, he had this one hoss and always the one idea in his head--to
slip him over at such a long price that he could clean up enough to
quit on. Caley was doing his own training and riding. I kept an eye
on the hoss, and it seemed to me Silver Star worked good enough to
win, but every time he got in a race he'd quit at the head of the
stretch. That struck me as sort of queer because he come from
stretch-running stock. His daddy was a great one to win from behind.
Well, six or seven times Silver Star quit that way, and from the head
of the stretch home the Cricket would lay into him, whip and spur
both. Wouldn't make the slightest difference to the hoss, but
everybody could see that Caley was doing his best to make him run.
Folks got kind of sorry for him, sick that way, only one hoss and him
such a dog.

"Then one day Caley came to me and wanted the loan of some money. He
said the price had got long enough to suit him, but that he didn't
have anything to bet. Happened I had the bank roll handy and I let
him have two hundred. I can see the little feller now, with the red
patches on his cheeks and his eyes kind of shining with fever.

"'This is the biggest cinch that ever came off on a race track!' he
says to me, coughing every few words. 'Don't let the price scare you.
Don't let anything scare you. He'll be a good hoss to-day. Win
something for yourself.'

"It's this way 'bout me: I've heard that kind of talk before. When I
bet, it's got to be on my own hoss. I thought two hundred was plenty
to lose. Silver Star was 25 and 30 to 1 all over the ring and a
friend of Caley's unloaded the two hundred in little driblets so's
nobody would get suspicious and cut the price too far. The Cricket
got out of a sick bed to ride the race and Silver Star came from
behind and won by sev