"I dunno's there was ever anything wrong with his _heart_," said Old Man Curry. "Lots of folks make that mistake and think a man's heart is bad when it's only his habits that need reformin'. Now Eliphaz, on his breeding, he ought to----" "Yes, yes! I know all about his breeding--by Stormcloud out of Frippery--but he never ran to his breeding before. The way he ran for Jimmy Miles you'd have thought he was by a steam roller out of a wheelbarrow. What in Sam Hill have you been doing to him--sprinkling powders on his tongue?" The old man's eyes flashed wrathfully. "You know better'n that, Frank. All the help the black hoss had was what little bit Mose give him after the barrier went up. Ketch me handing the drug habit to a dumb critter! I guess _not_!" "Keep your shirt on," was the soothing reply. "I'm only telling you what they say. They think Jimmy Miles didn't know the right prescription." "A lot of things he don't know besides p'scriptions!" retorted Old Man Curry, still nettled. "Hosses, for one!" "But you're getting away from the subject, old-timer. Ain't you going to tell me what you've done to this horse to make him win?" "Some day, Frank--some day." The aged horseman combed his white beard with his fingers and regarded his impatient young friend with benign tolerance. "You--got many clients, so far?" Thus tactfully did Old Man Curry recognise the fact that the Bald-faced Kid was what another man might have called a tout. "A few, yes," said the Kid. "Pikers." "Well, sort of whisper to 'em that Eliphaz'll be a good bet the next time out." "If it's a dog race, there won't be any price on him," was the sulky response. "It won't be a dog race," said Old Man Curry. "It'll be a hoss race." A few days afterward the Bald-faced Kid picked up the overnight entry slip and there found something which caused him to emit a long, low whistle. "Well, the poor old nut!" murmured the Kid. "Just because he thinks well of the black horse, he's got no license to slip him in against the real ones.... Too much class here for Eliphaz. He may be able to beat dogs and nonwinners, but Topaz and Miss Louise will run the eyeballs out of him. Let's see--Topaz won his last start----" and the Bald-faced Kid fell to thumbing his form charts. Topaz and Miss Louise did not run the eyeballs out of Eliphaz; the supposed contenders never got near enough to the black horse to give him a race. Eliphaz burst out in front when the barrier rose and stayed there, triumphantly kicking clods in the faces of his pursuers. To quote from the form chart notes: "Eliphaz much too good; surprised the talent by winning as he pleased."