"You can get 50 and 60 to 1 on him! The boss said he'd make a bet. Don't let him overlook it!" When the bugle sounded, Hopwood grasped the bridle and led the horse through the chute to the track. The rain beat hard upon his hunched shoulders and his feet plowed heavily through the puddles. Repeated failure had robbed him of the pride of ownership and all confidence in horseflesh. He was, as the Bald-faced Kid said to himself, "a sad looking mess." Hopwood spoke but once, wasting no words. "Make good if you're going to," said he tersely, "because win or lose I'm _through_!" "Yes, boss, and don't forget what I told you. To-day's the day to bet on him. Go to it!" Last Chance splashed away down the track and Hopwood turned on his heel with a growl. "Come along!" said he to the Kid. "I might as well be all the different kinds of fool while I'm about it!" "Where to now?" asked the Kid innocently. "To the betting ring," was the grim response. "I said I'd bet on him this time and I will! Come along!" From his perch on the inside rail the official starter eyed the nonwinners with undisguised malevolence. Some of them were cantering steadily toward the barrier, some were walking and one, a black brute, seemed almost unmanageable, advancing in a series of wild plunges and sudden sidesteps. "Ah, hah," said the starter, with suitable profanity. "Old Alibi has got his hop in him again! I'll recommend the judges to refuse his entry." Then, to his assistant: "Jake, take hold of that crazy black thing and lead him up here. Don't let go of his head for a second or he'll be all over the place! Lively now! I want to get out of this rain.... Walk 'em up, you crook-legged little devils! _Walk 'em up, I say!_" Last Chance advanced sedately to his position, which was on the outer rail. Grayling, the favourite, had drawn the inner rail. Jake, obeying orders, swung his weight on Alibi's bit and dragged the rearing, plunging creature into the middle of the line. At that instant the starter jerked the trigger and yelled: "_Come on! Come on!_" The whole thing happened in the flicker of an eyelid. As Jake released his hold, Alibi whirled at right angles and bolted for the inner rail, carrying Grayling, Ivy Leaf, Satsuma, and Jolson with him. They crashed into the fence, a squealing, kicking tangle, above which rose the shrill, frightened yells of the jockeys. This left but four horses in the race, and one of them, old Last Chance, passed under the barrier with a wild bound which all but unseated his rider. It was not his habit to display such unseemly haste in getting away from the post and, to do him justice, Last Chance was no less surprised--and shocked--than a certain young man of our acquaintance. "Well, look at that lizard go!" gasped the Bald-faced Kid. _"Look--at--him--go!_" "Honest Injun?" asked Hopwood. "Is he going--really?"