True to Pickins' threat the quartet kept very close indeed to Daw, but, during the finish of the rather exciting third race, Blackie, manoeuvering so that Wallingford was just behind him, slipped from his pocket the remaining half of the stake-money. "Well, boys," said Wallingford blandly, the money safely tucked away in his own pocket. "I still have a little coin to wager on Whipsaw. Do you want it?" "No; we're satisfied," returned Larry dryly. "All right, then," said Wallingford. "I'm going down and get it on the books." Harry Phelps sighed. "It's too bad to see that easy money going away from us, Pink," he confessed. Jake Block spent but little time that afternoon in the grand-stand by the side of Beauty Phillips and her mother. From the beginning of the racing he was first in the stables and then in the paddock with an anxious eye. He was lined up at the fence opposite the barrier for the start of the fateful fourth, and he stood there, after the horses had jumped away, to watch his great little Whipsaw around the course. But Beauty Phillips was not without company. Wallingford sauntered up at the sound of the mounting bell and sat confidently by her. "Did you get it all down, Jimmy?" she asked. "Every cent," said he, wiping his brow nervously. "Did you?" "Mother and I are broke if Whipsaw don't win," she confessed with dry lips. "What do you suppose makes Mr. Block look up here with such a poison face every two or three minutes?" Wallingford chuckled hugely. "The odds," he explained. "I've cut them to slivers. I bet all mine and Blackie's money with the Phelps crowd, then turned around and bet all ours and theirs again. Say, it's murder if I lose. Not even a fancy murder, either." Blackie Daw, attended by three of his guard, came over to join them, Blackie evidencing a strong disposition to linger in the rear, for he was taking a desperate chance with desperate men. If Whipsaw lost he had his course mapped out--down the nearest steps of the grand-stand and out to the carriage-gate as fast as his legs would carry him. There, J. Rufus' automobile was to be waiting, all cranked up and trembling, ready to dart away the moment Blackie should jump in. Just as Blackie and the others joined Wallingford and Beauty Phillips, Larry Teller came breathlessly up from the betting-shed. "There's something doing on that Whipsaw horse," he declared excitedly. "He opened at twenty to one--and in fifteen minutes of play--either somebody that knows something--or a wagonload of fool-money--had backed him down to evens. Think of it! Evens!"