Before the voiceless Broadway Syndicate was through gasping over this piece of news, Jake Block came stalking through the grand-stand. Though elated over his victory and flushed with his winnings, he nevertheless had time to cast a bitter scowl in the direction of Beauty Phillips. "The next time I hand any woman a tip you may cut my arm off!" he declared. "I'm through with you!" "Who's that?" asked Larry Teller, glaring after the man who had mentioned the pregnant word "tip." "Jake Block, the owner of Whipsaw," Wallingford was pleased to inform him. "It's a frame-up!" shouted Billy Banting. A strong left hand clutched desperately at Blackie Daw's coat and tore the top button off, and an equally strong right hand grabbed into Blackie Daw's inside coat-pocket. It was empty, Pickins found, just as a stronger hand than his own gripped him until he winced with pain. "What have you done with the stakes?" shrieked Pickins, trying to throw off that grip, but not turning. "What's it your business? But, if you want to know, all that stake-money was bet in the shed and in the books about town--on Whipsaw to win!" The broad-shouldered man who had edged up quite near to them during the race, and who had interfered with Pickins, now stepped in front of the members of the defunct Broadway Syndicate. They only took one good look at him, and then fell back quite clamily. In the broad-shouldered giant they had recognized Harvey Willis, the quite capable Broadway policeman and friend of Wallingford, off for the day in his street clothes. "Run along, little ones, and play tricks on the ignorant country folks from Harlem and Flatbush," advised Beauty Phillips as she took Wallingford's arm and turned away with him. "You've been whipsawed!" She was exceptionally gracious to J. Rufus that evening, but for the first time in many days he was extremely thoughtful. A vague unrest possessed him and it grew as the Beauty became more gracious. He guessed that he could marry her if he wished, but somehow the idea did not please him as it might have done a few weeks earlier. He liked the Beauty perhaps even better than before, but somehow she was not quite the type of woman for him, and he had not realized it until she brought him face to face with the problem. "By the way," he said as he bid her good night, "I think I'll take a little run about the country for a while. I'm a whole lot tired of this man's town." CHAPTER XVII J. RUFUS SEEKS FOR PROFITABLE INVESTMENT IN THE COUNTRY