t," insisted Daw. "No place or show-money
for us to-day."

At the track they saw Beauty Phillips alone in the grand-stand, and
joined her. Wallingford introduced Blackie, and they chatted with her
a few moments, then Wallingford took him away. He did not care to have
Jake Block see them with her until after the fourth race. As they
moved off she gave Wallingford a quick, meaning little nod.

True to Pickins' threat the quartet kept very close indeed to Daw,
but, during the finish of the rather exciting third race, Blackie,
manoeuvering so that Wallingford was just behind him, slipped from
his pocket the remaining half of the stake-money.

"Well, boys," said Wallingford blandly, the money safely tucked away
in his own pocket. "I still have a little coin to wager on Whipsaw. Do
you want it?"

"No; we're satisfied," returned Larry dryly.

"All right, then," said Wallingford. "I'm going down and get it on the
books."

Harry Phelps sighed.

"It's too bad to see that easy money going away from us, Pink," he
confessed.

Jake Block spent but little time that afternoon in the grand-stand by
the side of Beauty Phillips and her mother. From the beginning of the
racing he was first in the stables and then in the paddock with an
anxious eye. He was lined up at the fence opposite the barrier for the
start of the fateful fourth, and he stood there, after the horses had
jumped away, to watch his great little Whipsaw around the course. But
Beauty Phillips was not without company. Wallingford sauntered up at
the sound of the mounting bell and sat confidently by her.

"Did you get it all down, Jimmy?" she asked.

"Every cent," said he, wiping his brow nervously. "Did you?"

"Mother and I are broke if Whipsaw don't win," she confessed with dry
lips. "What do you suppose makes Mr. Block look up here with such a
poison face every two or three minutes?"

Wallingford chuckled hugely.

"The odds," he explained. "I've cut them to slivers. I bet all mine
and Blackie's money with the Phelps crowd, then turned around and bet
all ours and theirs again. Say, it's murder if I lose. Not even a
fancy murder, either."

Blackie Daw, attended by three of his guard, came over to join them,
Blackie evidencing a strong disposition to linger in the rear, for he
was taking a desperate chance with desperate men. If Whipsaw lost he
had his course mapped out--down the nearest steps of the grand-stand
and out to the carriage-gate as fast as his l