tation of
Walter Jones singing 'Captain Kidd' with the bum pipes."

Joe was so much in earnest about it that Bunch and I put up fifty
on "Perhaps" and waited.

We are still waiting.

"Perhaps" may have been a good horse but he had a bad memory and
never could recollect which end of the track was the proper place
to finish.

Joe must have left for Elmhurst immediately after the race because
he failed to answer roll call.

Then we ran across Dave Torrence, the famous inventor of the
disappearing trump so much used by pinochle players.

When Dave began to dope 'em out for us Bunch and I hid our
pocketbooks in our shoes.

"Here's a good one," Dave suggested; "listen to this 'Easy Money'
out of 'Life Insurance' by 'Director.' And here's a good one,
'Chauffeur' out of 'Automobile' by 'Policeman!' Do you care for
those?"

There were tears in Bunch's eyes, but I was busy looking for a rock.

"Here are some more peacherinos," Dave went on, relentlessly, "here
is 'Golf Player' out of 'Business' by 'Mosquito,' and here's
another good one, 'Eternal Daylights' out of 'Russia' by
'Japan'--like 'em?"

Bunch and I handed Dave the reproachful face and fled for our lives.

Then we got down to business and began to lose our money with more
system and less noise.

At the end of the fifth race we hadn't the price of a leather
sandwich between us.

Every dog we had mentioned to the Bookies proved to be a false
alarm.

Every turtle we plunged on carried our money to the bonfire and
dumped it in.

"My little black man is whimpering, Bunch," I said. "I'm cured."

"One hundred and sixty bucks to the bad for mine," laughed Bunch.
"I guess that will hold me temporarily. Come on, John; let's hop
in the Bubble and dash back to the Hotel Astor; the girls will be
waiting for us."

We hurried to the spot where Flash Harvey was to leave the
gas-hopper but there was no sign of Flash or the machine.

Seven o'clock came and still no sign of Flash or the Bubble, and
there we sat, two sad boys without a baubee in the jeans, hungry to
the limit and with an ever present vision of our two worried wives
displacing a bunch of expensive space in a restaurant while they
waited for us to show.

It was pitiful.

Eight o'clock came, no Flash, no machine, while there we waited and
watched our hair as it slowly turned gray.

I had gone through my pockets till I wore holes in them without
locating anything in the shape money, but final