at means, Mr.
Burton. If you don't, Ferris does. The judges will rule him out."

But old Burton wanted that big young pointer though there were a _score_
of wild devils in him. He wanted him worse than ever now he had heard.
He had been a bolter himself when young--had run away from home. He
liked bolters. But, also, he wanted to win the championship.

"Let the girl run him, then," he said. "Suits me. I'll pay her, and pay
her well. If the dog wins, she'll get the stake."

Arnold flushed. "She'll run the dog, sir; but not for you. I mean, she
won't run him if she knows it's for you. She's a high-strung girl--and
proud; she mustn't know a thing about this deal. She must think she's
runnin' her dog an' mine."

"Then you mean to deceive her in the matter?" demanded Burton.

Again Arnold flushed. "Sometimes, Mr. Burton, a man has to do a thing he
don't like to do. I'll have to deceive the girl until after the trial.
It ain't easy. I lay awake all night last night, after I got your
telegram. It's this way, sir. I have to tell you in order for you to
understand: If I can tell the bank positively that I'll have three
thousand dollars in a month, I can renew a note I've got to renew--or
lose the place here. That's the reason I'm sellin' Drake. But if I tell
Jess now that I have sold him, even if she consents to run, the life
won't be in her to handle him. It'll take it all out of her, sir. She'll
be ashamed in the midst of all them people. She's a high-strung girl.

"And that brings me to the matter of the check you started to write," he
went on. "I don't want that check now. Ever since I was laid up Jess has
tended to things for me. You know how women are when they take charge.
If that check's in the house she's liable to find it. If I deposit it,
in a little town like this, people will find it out, and somebody'll
blab to her. You send it to me after the trial, when I'm ready to
explain to the girl without ruinin' your prospect of winnin', an'
Drake's. That's my condition."

As he went up the street toward the station, Burton heard from behind
the cottage the challenging bark of the championship hope--his dog now.

"Ferris," he said, "I believe we've got the champion this time. I think
I'll attend that trial myself."

For more than a generation, the National Championship, bird-dog classic
of America, had been run near Breton Junction where, two weeks later,
Burton got off the train and was met by Ferris.

"Your dog