“We might as well get all the fresh air we can,” said Dolly. “That’s all
we will get!”
From their reserve fund of twenty-seven dollars which each had solemnly
agreed with the other would not be risked on race-horses, Dolly
subtracted a two-dollar bill. This she stuck conspicuously across the
face of the clock on the mantel.
“Why?” asked Carter.
“When we get back this evening,” Dolly explained, “that will be the
first thing we’ll see. It’s going to look awfully good!”
This day there was no scarlet car to rush them with refreshing swiftness
through Brooklyn’s parkways and along the Ocean Avenue. Instead, they
hung to a strap in a cross-town car, changed to the ferry, and again to
the Long Island Railroad. When Carter halted at the special car of the
Turf Club, Dolly took his arm and led him forward to the day coach.
“But,” protested Carter, “when you’re spending a hundred dollars with
one hand, why grudge fifty cents for a parlor-car seat? If you’re going
to be a sport, be a sport.” “And if you’ve got to be a piker,” said
Dolly, “don’t be ashamed to be a piker. We’re not spending a hundred
dollars because we can afford it, but because you dreamt a dream. You
didn’t dream you were riding in parlor-cars! If you did, it’s time I
woke you.”
This day there was for them no box overlooking the finish, no club-house
luncheon. With the other pikers, they sat in the free seats, with those
who sat coatless and tucked their handkerchiefs inside their collars,
and with those who mopped their perspiring countenances with rice-paper
and marked their cards with a hat-pin. Their lunch consisted of a
massive ham sandwich with a top dressing of mustard.
Dromedary did not run until the fifth race, and the long wait, before
they could learn their fate, was intolerable. They knew most of the
horses, and, to pass the time, on each of the first races Dolly made
imaginary bets. Of these mental wagers, she lost every one.
“If you turn out to be as bad a guesser when you’re asleep as I am when
I’m awake,” said Dolly, “we’re going to lose our fortune.”
“I’m weakening!” declared Carter. “A hundred dollars is beginning to
look to me like an awful lot of money. Twenty-seven dollars, and there’s
only twenty of that left now, is mighty small capital, but twenty
dollars plus a hundred could keep us alive for a month!”
“Did you, or did you not, dream that Dromedary would win?” demanded
Dolly sternly.
“I certainly did, several times,” said Carter. “But it may be I
was thinking of the horse. I’ve lost such a lot on him, my mind may
have----”
“Did you,” interrupted Dolly, “say if you had a hundred dollars you’d
bet it, and did a hundred dollars walk in through the door instantly?”
Carter, reassured, breathed again. “It certainly did!” he repeated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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