"Well, they're all satisfied now," laughed Silver. "And so am I." "I should think they was," snorted Mat Woodburn. "I see 'em settin' round, swellin' and swellin', and rubbin' their fat paunches. Think they'll keep a nag among the lot of 'em! Not so much as a broken-down towel-hoss." Silver stared out of the window. "I shall have to sell the horses," he said. The old man banged the table. "Never!" he cried. "They've took a slice off o' you, and now you must take a bit off o' them. That mayn't be religion, but it's _right_ all right!" He rose and, kicking off his slippers, padded to the door and looked out. Then he peeped out into the forsaken yard and half drew the curtain. Silver, who loved the old man most when he was most mysterious, watched him with kind eyes that laughed. "I don't bet, Mr. Silver, as you know," began the other huskily, "except when it's a cert., because it's against _her_ principles." He looked round him and dropped his voice. "But I took a thousand to ten about Fo'-Pound-the-Second at Gatwick on Saraday. Told Mar, too. And she never said No. Look to me like a sign like." He blinked up at the young man. "You ain't clean'd out, sir, are you--not mopped up with the sponge?" he asked anxiously. "There'll be a few thousands left when it's finished, I guess," replied the other. The old man lifted on his stockinged toes. "Put a thousand on," he whispered. "I'll do it for ye, so there's no talk. If he wins, thar's a hundred thousand back. If he don't, well, it's gone down the sink and h'up the spout same as its fathers afore it." The young man brimmed with quiet mirth. "Will he win?" he asked. Old Mat swung his nose from side to side across his face in a way styled by those who knew him trunk-slinging. "He's up against something mighty big," said Jim, nodding at the wall. On it was pinned a great coloured double-page picture from _The Sporting and Dramatic_ of the famous American mare Mocassin. Beside it were various cuttings from daily papers, recounting the romantic history of the popular favourite, and beneath the picture were three lines from the Mocassin Song-- _Made in the mould, Of Old Iroquois bold, Mocassin, the Queen of Kentucky_.