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diff --git a/old/mwcnl10.txt b/old/mwcnl10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2d6e8ce --- /dev/null +++ b/old/mwcnl10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1876 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext of The Man Who Could Not Lose, by Davis +#13 in our series by Richard Harding Davis + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Etext scanned by Aaron Cannon of Paradise, California + + + + + +THE MAN WHO COULD NOT LOSE + +by Richard Harding Davis + + + +The Carters had married in haste and refused to repent at leisure. +So blindly were they in love, that they considered their marriage +their greatest asset. The rest of the world, as represented by +mutual friends, considered it the only thing that could be urged +against either of them. While single, each had been popular. As a +bachelor, young "Champ" Carter had filled his modest place +acceptably. Hostesses sought him for dinners and week-end parties, +men of his own years, for golf and tennis, and young girls liked +him because when he talked to one of them he never talked of +himself, or let his eyes wander toward any other girl. He had been + +brought up by a rich father in an expensive way, and the rich +father had then died leaving Champneys alone in the world, with no +money, and with even a few of his father's debts. These debts of +honor the son, ever since leaving Yale, had been paying off. It had +kept him very poor, for Carter had elected to live by his pen, and, +though he wrote very carefully and slowly, the editors of the +magazines had been equally careful and slow in accepting what he +wrote. + +With an income so uncertain that the only thing that could be said +of it with certainty was that it was too small to support even +himself, Carter should not have thought of matrimony. Nor, must it +be said to his credit, did he think of it until the girl came along +that he wanted to marry. + +The trouble with Dolly Ingram was her mother. Her mother was a +really terrible person. She was quite impossible. She was a social +leader, and of such importance that visiting princes and society +reporters, even among themselves, did not laugh at her. Her +visiting list was so small that she did not keep a social +secretary, but, it was said, wrote her invitations herself. +Stylites on his pillar was less exclusive. Nor did he take his +exalted but lonely position with less sense of humor. When Ingram +died and left her many millions to dispose of absolutely as she +pleased, even to the allowance she should give their daughter, he +left her with but one ambition unfulfilled. That was to marry her +Dolly to an English duke. Hungarian princes, French marquises, +Italian counts, German barons, Mrs. Ingram could not see. Her +son-in-law must be a duke. She had her eyes on two, one somewhat +shopworn, and the other a bankrupt; and in training, she had one +just coming of age. Already she saw her self a sort of a dowager +duchess by marriage, discussing with real dowager duchesses the way +to bring up teething earls and viscounts. For three years in Europe +Mrs.Ingram had been drilling her daughter for the part she intended +her to play. But, on returning to her native land, Dolly, who +possessed all the feelings, thrills, and heart-throbs of which her +mother was ignorant, ungratefully fell deeply in love with +Champneys Carter, and he with her. It was always a question of +controversy between them as to which had first fallen in love with +the other. As a matter of history, honors were even. + +He first saw her during a thunder storm, in the paddock at the +races, wearing a rain-coat with the collar turned up and a Panama +hat with the brim turned down. She was talking, in terms of +affectionate familiarity, with Cuthbert's two-year- old, The Scout. +The Scout had just lost a race by a nose, and Dolly was holding the +nose against her cheek and comforting him. The two made a charming +picture, and, as Carter stumbled upon it and halted, the race-horse +lowered his eyes and seemed to say: "Wouldn't YOU throw a race for +this?" And the girl raised her eyes and seemed to say: "What a +nice-looking, bright-looking young man! Why don't I know who you +are?" + +So, Carter ran to find Cuthbert, and told him The Scout had gone +lame. When, on their return, Miss Ingram refused to loosen her hold +on The Scout's nose, Cuthbert apologetically mumbled Carter's name, +and in some awe Miss Ingram's name, and then, to his surprise, both +young people lost interest in The Scout, and wandered away together +into the rain. + +After an hour, when they parted at the club stand, for which Carter +could not afford a ticket, he asked wistfully: "Do you often come +racing?" and Miss Ingram said: "Do you mean, am I coming +to-morrow?" + +"I do!" said Carter. + +"Then, why didn't you say that?" inquired Miss Ingram. "Otherwise +I mightn't have come. I have the Holland House coach for to-morrow, +and, if you'll join us, I'll save a place for you, and you can sit +in our box. + +"I've lived so long abroad," she explained, "that I'm afraid of not +being simple and direct like other American girls. Do you think +I'll get on here at home? " + +"If you get on with every one else as well as you've got on with +me," said Carter morosely, I will shoot myself." + +Miss Ingram smiled thoughtfully. "At eleven, then," she said, "in +front of the Holland House." + +Carter walked away with a flurried, heated suffocation around his +heart and a joyous lightness in his feet. Of the first man he met +he demanded, "Who was the beautiful girl in the rain-coat?" And +when the man told him, Carter left him without speaking. For she +was quite the richest girl in America. But the next day that fault +seemed to distress her so little that Carter, also, refused to +allow it to rest on his conscience, and they were very happy. And +each saw that they were happy because they were together. + +The ridiculous mother was not present at the races, but after +Carter began to call at their house and was invited to dinner, Mrs. +Ingram received him with her habitual rudeness. As an impediment in +the success of her ambition she never considered him. As a boy +friend of her daughter's, she classed him with "her" lawyer and +"her" architect and a little higher than the "person" who arranged +the flowers. Nor, in her turn, did Dolly consider her mother; for +within two months another matter of controversy between Dolly and +Carter was as to who had first proposed to the other. Carter +protested there never had been any formal proposal, that from the +first they had both taken it for granted that married they would +be. But Dolly insisted that because he had been afraid of her +money, or her mother, he had forced her to propose to him. + +"You could not have loved me very much," she complained, "if you'd +let a little thing like money make you hesitate." + +"It's not a little thing," suggested Carter. "They say it's several +millions, and it happens to be YOURS. If it were MINE, now!" +"Money," said Dolly sententiously, "is given people to make them +happy, not to make them miserable." + +"Wait until I sell my stories to the magazines," said Carter, "and +then I will be independent and can support you." + +The plan did not strike Dolly as one likely to lead to a hasty +marriage. But he was sensitive about his stories, and she did not +wish to hurt his feelings. + +"Let's get married first," she suggested, "and then I can BUY you +a magazine. We'll call it CARTER'S MAGAZINE and we will print +nothing in it but your stories. Then we can laugh at the editors!" + +"Not half as loud as they will," said Carter. + +With three thousand dollars in bank and three stories accepted and +seventeen still to hear from, and with Dolly daily telling him that +it was evident he did not love her, Carter decided they were ready, +hand in hand, to leap into the sea of matrimony. His interview on +the subject with Mrs. Ingram was most painful. It lasted during the +time it took her to walk out of her drawing-room to the foot of her +staircase. She spoke to herself, and the only words of which Carter +was sure were "preposterous" and "intolerable insolence." Later in +the morning she sent a note to his flat, forbidding him not only +her daughter, but the house in which her daughter lived, and even +the use of the United States mails and the New York telephone +wires. She described his conduct in words that, had they come from +a man, would have afforded Carter every excuse for violent +exercise. + +Immediately in the wake of the note arrived Dolly, in tears, and +carrying a dressing-case. + +"I have left mother!" she announced. "And I have her car +downstairs, and a clergyman in it, unless he has run away. He +doesn't want to marry us, because he's afraid mother will stop +supporting his flower mission. You get your hat and take me where +he can marry us. No mother can talk about the man I love the way +mother talked about you, and think I won't marry him the same day!" + +Carter, with her mother's handwriting still red before his eyes, +and his self-love shaken with rage flourished the letter. + +"And no mother," he shouted, "can call ME a 'fortune-hunter' and a +'cradle-robber' and think I'll make good by marrying her daughter! +Not until she BEGS me to!" + +Dolly swept toward him like a summer storm. Her eyes were wet and +flashing. "Until WHO begs you to?" she demanded. "WHO are you +marrying; mother or me?" + +"If I marry you," cried Carter, frightened but also greatly +excited, "your mother won't give you a penny!" + +"And that," taunted Dolly, perfectly aware that she was ridiculous, +"is why you won't marry me!" + +For an instant, long enough to make her blush with shame and +happiness, Carter grinned at her. "Now, just for that," he said, "I +won't kiss you, and I WILL marry you!" But, as a matter of fact, he +DID kiss her. Then he gazed happily around his small sitting-room. +"Make yourself at home here," he directed, "while I pack my bag." + +"I MEAN to make myself very much at home here," said Dolly +joyfully, "for the rest of my life." + +From the recesses of the flat Carter called: "The rent's paid only +till September. After that we live in a hall bedroom and cook on a +gas-stove. And that's no idle jest, either." + +Fearing the publicity of the City Hall license bureau, they +released the clergyman, much to the relief of that gentleman, and +told the chauffeur to drive across the State line into Connecticut. + +"It's the last time we can borrow your mother's car," said Carter, +"and we'd better make it go as far as we can." + +It was one of those days in May. Blue was the sky and sunshine was +in the air, and in the park little girls from the tenements, in +white, were playing they were queens. Dolly wanted to kidnap two of +them for bridesmaids. In Harlem they stopped at a jeweler's shop, +and Carter got out and bought a wedding-ring. + +In the Bronx were dogwood blossoms and leaves of tender green and +beds of tulips, and along the Boston Post Road, on their right, the +Sound flashed in the sunlight; and on their left, gardens, lawns, +and orchards ran with the road, and the apple trees were masses of +pink and white. + +Whenever a car approached from the rear, Carter pretended it was +Mrs. Ingram coming to prevent the elopement, and Dolly clung to +him. When the car had passed, she forgot to stop clinging to him. + +In Greenwich Village they procured a license, and a magistrate +married them, and they were a little frightened and greatly happy +and, they both discovered simultaneously, outrageously hungry. So +they drove through Bedford Village to South Salem, and lunched at +the Horse and Hounds Inn, on blue and white china, in the same room +where Major Andre was once a prisoner. And they felt very sorry for +Major Andre, and for everybody who had not been just married that +morning. And after lunch they sat outside in the garden and fed +lumps of sugar to a charming collie and cream to a fat gray cat. + +They decided to start housekeeping in Carter's flat, and so turned +back to New York, this time following the old coach road through +North Castle to White Plains, across to Tarrytown, and along the +bank of the Hudson into Riverside Drive. Millions and millions of +friendly folk, chiefly nurse- maids and traffic policemen, waved to +them, and for some reason smiled. + +"The joke of it is," declared Carter, "they don't know! The most +wonderful event of the century has just passed into history. We are +married, and nobody knows!" + +But when the car drove away from in front of Carter's door, they +saw on top of it two old shoes and a sign reading: "We have just +been married." While they had been at luncheon, the chauffeur had +risen to the occasion. + +"After all," said Carter soothingly, "he meant no harm. And it's +the only thing about our wedding yet that seems legal." + +Three months later two very unhappy young people faced starvation +in the sitting-room of Carter's flat. Gloom was written upon the +countenance of each, and the heat and the care that comes when one +desires to live, and lacks the wherewithal to fulfill that desire, +had made them pallid and had drawn black lines under Dolly's eyes. + +Mrs. Ingram had played her part exactly as her dearest friends had +said she would. She had sent to Carter's flat, seven trunks filled +with Dolly's clothes, eighteen hats, and another most unpleasant +letter. In this, on the sole condition that Dolly would at once +leave her husband, she offered to forgive and to support her. + +To this Dolly composed eleven scornful answers, but finally decided +that no answer at all was the most scornful. + +She and Carter then proceeded joyfully to waste his three thousand +dollars with that contempt for money with which on a honey-moon it +should always be regarded. When there was no more, Dolly called +upon her mother's lawyers and inquired if her father had left her +anything in her own right. The lawyers regretted he had not, but +having loved Dolly since she was born, offered to advance her any +money she wanted. They said they felt sure her mother would +"relent." + +"SHE may," said Dolly haughtily. "I WON'T! And my husband can give +me all I need. I only wanted something of my own, because I'm going +to make him a surprise present of a new motor-car. The one we are +using now does not suit us. + +This was quite true, as the one they were then using ran through +the subway. + +As summer approached, Carter had suddenly awakened to the fact that +he soon would be a pauper, and cut short the honey- moon. They +returned to the flat, and he set forth to look for a position. +Later, while still looking for it, he spoke of it as a "job." He +first thought he would like to be an assistant editor of a +magazine. But he found editors of magazines anxious to employ new +and untried assistants, especially in June, were very few. On the +contrary, they explained they were retrenching and cutting down +expenses--they meant they had discharged all office boys who +received more than three dollars a week. They further "retrenched," +by taking a mean advantage of Carter's having called upon them in +person, by handing him three or four of his stories--but by this he +saved his postage-stamps. + +Each day, when he returned to the flat, Dolly, who always expected +each editor would hastily dust off his chair and offer it to her +brilliant husband, would smile excitedly and gasp, "Well?" and +Carter would throw the rejected manuscripts on the table and say: +"At least, I have not returned empty- handed." Then they would +discover a magazine that neither they nor any one else knew +existed, and they would hurriedly readdress the manuscripts to that +periodical, and run to post them at the letter-box on the corner. + +"Any one of them, if ACCEPTED," Carter would point out, "might +bring us in twenty-five dollars. A story of mine once sold for +forty; so to-night we can afford to dine at a restaurant where wine +is NOT 'included.'" + +Fortunately, they never lost their sense of humor. Otherwise the +narrow confines of the flat, the evil smells that rose from the +baked streets, the greasy food of Italian and Hungarian +restaurants, and the ever-haunting need of money might have crushed +their youthful spirits. But in time even they found that one, still +less two, cannot exist exclusively on love and the power to see the +bright side of things-- especially when there is no bright side. +They had come to the point where they must borrow money from their +friends, and that, though there were many who would have opened +their safes to them, they had agreed was the one thing they would +not do, or they must starve. The alternative was equally +distasteful. + +Carter had struggled earnestly to find a job. But his inexperience +and the season of the year were against him. No newspaper wanted a +dramatic critic when the only shows in town had been running three +months, and on roof gardens; nor did they want a "cub" reporter +when veterans were being "laid off" by the dozens. Nor were his +services desired as a private secretary, a taxicab driver, an agent +to sell real estate or automobiles or stocks. As no one gave him a +chance to prove his unfitness for any of these callings, the fact +that he knew nothing of any of them did not greatly matter. At +these rebuffs Dolly was distinctly pleased. She argued they proved +he was intended to pursue his natural career as an author. + +That their friends might know they were poor did not affect her, +but she did not want them to think by his taking up any outside +"job" that they were poor because as a literary genius he was a +failure. She believed in his stories. She wanted every one else to +believe in them. Meanwhile, she assisted him in so far as she could +by pawning the contents of five of the seven trunks, by learning to +cook on a " Kitchenette," and to laundry her handkerchiefs and iron +them on the looking-glass. + +They faced each other across the breakfast-table. It was only nine +o'clock, but the sun beat into the flat with the breath of a +furnace, and the air was foul and humid. + +"I tell you," Carter was saying fiercely, "you look ill. You are +ill. You must go to the sea-shore. You must visit some of your +proud, friends at East Hampton or Newport. Then I'll know you're +happy and I won't worry, and I'll find a job. I don't mind the +heat-and I'll write you love letters"--he was talking very fast and +not looking at Dolly--"like those I used to write you, before----" + +Dolly raised her hand. "Listen!" she said. "Suppose I leave you. +What will happen? I'll wake up in a cool, beautiful brass bed, +won't I--with cretonne window-curtains, and salt air blowing them +about, and a maid to bring me coffee. And instead of a bathroom +like yours, next to an elevator shaft and a fire-escape, I'll have +one as big as a church, and the whole blue ocean to swim in. And +I'll sit on the rocks in the sunshine and watch the waves and the +yachts--" + +"And grow well again!" cried Carter. "But you'll write to me," he +added wistfully, "every day, won't you?" + +In her wrath, Dolly rose, and from across the table confronted him. + +"And what will I be doing on those rocks?" she cried. "You KNOW +what I'll be doing! I'll be sobbing, and sobbing, and calling out +to the waves: 'Why did he send me away? Why doesn't he want me? +Because he doesn't love me. That's why! He doesn't LOVE me!' And +you DON'T!" cried Dolly. "you DON'T!" + +It took him all of three minutes to persuade her she was mistaken. + +"Very well, then," sobbed Dolly, "that's settled. And there'll be +no more talk of sending me away! + +"There will NOT!" said Champneys hastily. "We will now," he +announced, "go into committee of the whole and decide how we are to +face financial failure. Our assets consist of two stories, +accepted, but not paid for, and fifteen stories not accepted. In +cash, he spread upon the table a meagre collection of soiled bills +and coins. "We have twenty-seven dollars and fourteen cents. That +is every penny we possess in the world." + +Dolly regarded him fixedly and shook her head. + +"Is it wicked," she asked, "to love you so?" + +"Haven't you been listening to me?" demanded Carter. + +Again Dolly shook her head. + +"I was watching the way you talk. When your lips move fast they do +such charming things." + +"Do you know," roared Carter, "that we haven't a penny in the +world, that we have nothing in this flat to eat?" + +"I still have five hats," said Dolly. + +"We can't eat hats," protested Champneys. + +"We can sell hats!" returned Dolly. "They cost eighty dollars +apiece!" + +"When you need money," explained Carter, "I find it's just as hard +to sell a hat as to eat it." + +"Twenty-seven dollars and fourteen cents," repeated Dolly. She +exclaimed remorsefully: "And you started with three thousand! What +did I do with it?" + +"We both had the time of our lives with it!" said Carter stoutly. +"And that's all there is to that. Post-mortems," he pointed out, +"are useful only as guides to the future, and as our future will +never hold a second three thousand dollars, we needn't worry about +how we spent the first one. No! What we must consider now is how we +can grow rich quick, and the quicker and richer, the better. +Pawning our clothes, or what's left of them, is bad economics. +There's no use considering how to live from meal to meal. We must +evolve something big, picturesque, that will bring a fortune. You +have imagination; I'm supposed to have imagination, we must think +of a plan to get money, much money. I do not insist on our plan +being dignified, or even outwardly respectable; so long as it keeps +you alive, it may be as desperate as--" + +"I see!" cried Dolly; "like sending mother Black Hand letters!" + +"Blackmail----" began that lady's son-in-law doubtfully. + +"Or!" cried Dolly, "we might kidnap Mr. Carnegie when he's walking +in the park alone, and hold him for ransom. Or"--she rushed on-- +"we might forge a codicil to father's will, and make it say if +mother shouldn't like the man I want to marry, all of father's +fortune must go to my husband!" + +"Forgery," exclaimed Champneys, "is going further than I----" + +"And another plan," interrupted Dolly," that I have always had in +mind, is to issue a cheaper edition of your book, 'The Dead Heat.' +The reason the first edition of 'The Dead Heat' didn't sell----" + +"Don't tell ME why it didn't sell," said Champneys. "I wrote it!" + +"That book," declared Dolly loyally, "was never properly +advertised. No one knew about it, so no one bought it!" + +"Eleven people bought it!" corrected the author. + +"We will put it in a paper cover and sell it for fifty cents," +cried Dolly. " It's the best detective story I ever read, and +people have got to know it is the best. So we'll advertise it like +a breakfast food." + +"The idea," interrupted Champneys, "is to make money, not throw it +away. Besides, we haven't any to throw away. Dolly sighed bitterly. + +"If only," she exclaimed, "we had that three thousand dollars back +again! I'd save SO carefully. It was all my fault. The races took +it, but it was I took you to the races." + +"No one ever had to drag ME to the races," said Carter. " It was +the way we went that was extravagant. Automobiles by the hour +standing idle, and a box each day, and----" + +"And always backing Dromedary," suggested Dolly. Carter was touched +on a sensitive spot. "That horse," he protested loudly, "is a +mighty good horse. Some day----" + +"That's what you always said," remarked Dolly, "but he never seems +to have his day." + +"It's strange," said Champneys consciously. "I dreamed of Dromedary +only last night. Same dream over and over again." Hastily he +changed the subject. + +"For some reason I don't sleep well. I don't know why." + +Dolly looked at him with all the love in her eyes of a mother over +her ailing infant. + +"It's worrying over me, and the heat,"' she said. "And the garage +next door, and the skyscraper going up across the street, might +have something to do with it. And YOU," she mocked tenderly, +"wanted to send me to the sea-shore." + +Carter was frowning. As though about to speak, he opened his lips, +and then laughed embarrassedly. + +"Out with it," said Dolly, with an encouraging smile. "Did he win?" + +Seeing she had read what was in his mind, Carter leaned forward +eagerly. The ruling passion and a touch of superstition held him in +their grip. + +"He 'win' each time," he whispered. "I saw it as plain as I see +you. Each time he came up with a rush just at the same place, just +as they entered the stretch, and each time he won!" He slapped his +hand disdainfully upon the dirty bills before him. "If I had a +hundred dollars!" + +There was a knock at the door, and Carter opened it to the elevator +boy with the morning mail. The letters, save one, Carter dropped +upon the table. That one, with clumsy fingers, he tore open. He +exclaimed breathlessly: "It's from PLYMPTON'S MAGAZINE! Maybe--I've +sold a story!" He gave a cry almost of alarm. His voice was as +solemn as though the letter had announced a death. + +"Dolly," he whispered, "it's a check--a check for a HUNDRED +DOLLARS!" + +Guiltily, the two young people looked at each other. + +"We've GOT to!" breathed Dolly. "GOT to! If we let TWO signs like +that pass, we'd be flying in the face of Providence." + +With her hands gripping the arms of her chair, she leaned forward, +her eyes staring into space, her lips moving. + +"COME ON, you Dromedary!" she whispered. + +They changed the check into five and ten dollar bills, and, as +Carter was far too excited to work, made an absurdly early start +for the race-track. + +"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. + +Even in his proud days, Carter had never been able to bet heavily, +and instead of troubling the club-house commissioners with his +small wagers, he had, in the ring, bet ready money. Moreover, he +believed in the ring he obtained more favorable odds, and, when he +won, it pleased him, instead of waiting until settling day for a +check, to stand in a line and feel the real money thrust into his +hand. So, when the fourth race started he rose and raised his hat. + +"The time has come," he said. + +Without looking at him, Dolly nodded. She was far too tremulous to +speak. + +For several weeks Dromedary had not been placed, and Carter hoped +for odds of at least ten to one. But, when he pushed his way into +the arena, he found so little was thought of his choice that as +high as twenty to one was being offered, and with few takers. The +fact shattered his confidence. Here were two hundred book-makers, +trained to their calling, anxious at absurd odds to back their +opinion that the horse he liked could not win. In the face of such +unanimous contempt, his dream became fantastic, fatuous. He decided +he would risk only half of his fortune. Then, should the horse win, +he still would be passing rich, and should he lose, he would, at +least, have all of fifty dollars. + +With a book-maker he wagered that sum, and then, in unhappy +indecision, stood, in one hand clutching his ticket that called for +a potential thousand and fifty dollars, and in the other an actual +fifty. It was not a place for meditation. From every side men, more +or less sane, swept upon him, jostled him, and stamped upon him, +and still, struggling for a foothold, he swayed, hesitating. Then +he became conscious that the ring was nearly empty, that only a few +shrieking individuals still ran down the line. The horses were +going to the post. He must decide quickly. In front of him the +book- maker cleaned his board, and, as a final appeal, opposite the +names of three horses chalked thirty to one. Dromedary was among +them. Such odds could not be resisted. Carter shoved his fifty at +the man, and to that sum added the twenty dollars still in his +pocket. They were the last dollars he owned in the world. And +though he knew they were his last, he was fearful lest the +book-maker would refuse them. But, mechanically, the man passed +them over his shoulder. + +"And twenty-one hundred to seventy," he chanted. + +When Carter took his seat beside Dolly, he was quite cold. Still, +Dolly did not speak. Out of the corner of her eyes she questioned +him. + +"I got fifty at twenty to one," replied Carter, and seventy at +thirty!" + +In alarm, Dolly turned upon him. + +"SEVENTY!" she gasped. + +Carter nodded. "All we have," he said. "We have sixty cents left, +to start life over again!" + +As though to encourage him, Dolly placed her finger on her +race-card. + +"His colors," she said, "are 'green cap, green jacket, green and +white hoops.'" + +Through a maze of heat, a half-mile distant, at the starting- gate, +little spots of color moved in impatient circles. The big, +good-natured crowd had grown silent, so silent that from the high, +sun-warmed grass in the infield one could hear the lazy chirp of +the crickets. As though repeating a prayer, or an incantation, +Dolly's lips were moving quickly. + +"Green cap," she whispered, "green jacket, green and white hoops!" + +With a sharp sigh the crowd broke the silence. "They're off!" it +cried, and leaned forward expectant. + +The horses came so fast. To Carter their conduct seemed outrageous. +It was incredible that in so short a time, at a pace so reckless, +they would decide a question of such moment. They came bunched +together, shifting and changing, with, through the dust, flashes of +blue and gold and scarlet. A jacket of yellow shot out of the dust +and showed in front; a jacket of crimson followed. So they were at +the half; so they were at the three-quarters. + +The good-natured crowd began to sway, to grumble and murmur, then +to shout in sharp staccato. + +"Can you see him?" begged Dolly. + +"No," said Carter. "You don't see him until they reach the +stretch." + +One could hear their hoofs, could see the crimson jockey draw his +whip. At the sight, for he rode the favorite, the crowd gave a +great gasp of concern. + +"Oh, you Gold Heels!" it implored. + +Under the whip, Gold Heels drew even with the yellow jacket; stride +by stride, they fought it out alone. + +"Gold Heels!" cried the crowd. + +Behind them, in a curtain of dust, pounded the field. It charged in +a flying wedge, like a troop of cavalry. Dolly, searching for a +green jacket, saw, instead, a rainbow wave of color that, as it +rose and fell, sprang toward her in great leaps, swallowing the +track. + +"Gold Heels!" yelled the crowd. + +The field swept into the stretch. Without moving his eyes, Carter +caught Dolly by the wrist and pointed. As though giving a signal, +he shot his free hand into the air. + +"Now!" he shouted. + +From the curtain of dust, as lightning strikes through a cloud, +darted a great, raw-boned, ugly chestnut. Like the Empire Express, +he came rocking, thundering, spurning the ground. At his coming, +Gold Heels, to the eyes of the crowd, seemed to falter, to slacken, +to stand still. The crowd gave a great cry of amazement, a yell of +disgust. The chestnut drew even with Gold Heels, passed him, and +swept under the wire. Clinging to his neck was a little jockey in +a green cap, green jacket, and hoops of green and white. + +Dolly's hand was at her side, clutching the bench. Carter's hand +still clasped it. Neither spoke or looked at the other. For an +instant, while the crowd, no longer so good-natured, mocked and +jeered at itself, the two young people sat quite still, staring at +the green field, at the white clouds rolling from the ocean. Dolly +drew a long breath. + +"Let's go!" she gasped. "Let's thank him first, and then take me +home!" + +They found Dromedary in the paddock, and thanked him, and Carter +left Dolly with him, while he ran to collect his winnings. When he +returned, he showed her a sheaf of yellow bills, and as they ran +down the covered board walk to the gate, they skipped and danced. + +Dolly turned toward the train drawn up at the entrance. + +"Not with me!" shouted Carter. "We're going home in the reddest, +most expensive, fastest automobile I can hire!" + +In the "hack" line of motor-cars was one that answered those +requirements, and they fell into it as though it were their own. + +"To the Night and Day Bank!" commanded Carter. + +With the genial democracy of the race-track, the chauffeur lifted +his head to grin appreciatively. "That listens good to me!" he +said. + +"I like him!" whispered Dolly. "Let's buy him and the car." + +On the way home, they bought many cars; every car they saw, that +they liked, they bought. They bought, also, several houses, and a +yacht that they saw from the ferry-boat. And as soon as they had +deposited the most of their money in the bank, they went to a +pawnshop in Sixth Avenue and bought back many possessions that they +had feared they never would see again. + +When they entered the flat, the thing they first beheld was Dolly's +two-dollar bill. + +"What," demanded Carter, with repugnance, "is that strange piece of +paper?" + +Dolly examined it carefully. "I think it is a kind of money," she +said, used by the lower classes." + +They dined on the roof at Delmonico's. Dolly wore the largest of +the five hats still unsold, and Carter selected the dishes entirely +according to which was the most expensive. Every now and again they +would look anxiously down across the street at the bank that held +their money. They were nervous lest it should take fire. + +"We can be extravagant to-night," said Dolly, "because we owe it to +Dromedary to celebrate. But from to-night on we must save. We've +had an awful lesson. What happened to us last month must never +happen again. We were down to a two-dollar bill. Now we have +twenty-five hundred across the street, and you have several +hundreds in your pocket. On that we can live easily for a year. +Meanwhile, you can write 'the' great American novel without having +to worry about money, or to look for a steady job. And then your +book will come out, and you will be famous, and rich, and----" + +"Passing on from that," interrupted Carter, "the thing of first +importance is to get you out of that hot, beastly flat. I propose +we start to-morrow for Cape Cod. I know a lot of fishing villages +there where we could board and lodge for twelve dollars a week, and +row and play tennis and live in our bathing suits." + +Dolly assented with enthusiasm, and during the courses of the +dinner they happily discussed Cape Cod from Pocasset to Yarmouth, +and from Sandwich to Provincetown. So eager were they to escape, +that Carter telephoned the hallman at his club to secure a cabin +for the next afternoon on the Fall River boat. As they sat over +their coffee in the cool breeze, with, in the air, the scent of +flowers and the swing of music, and with, at their feet, the lights +of the great city, the world seemed very bright. + +"It has been a great day," sighed Carter. "And if I hadn't had +nervous prostration I would have enjoyed it. That race- course is +always cool, and there were some fine finishes. I noticed two +horses that would bear watching, Her Highness and Glowworm. If we +weren't leaving to-morrow, I'd be inclined----" Dolly regarded him +with eyes of horror. + +"Champneys Carter!" she exclaimed. As she said it, it sounded like +"Great Jehoshaphat!" + +Carter protested indignantly. "I only said, "he explained, "if I +were following the races, I'd watch those horses. Don't worry!" he +exclaimed. "I know when to stop." + +The next morning they took breakfast on the tiny terrace of a +restaurant overlooking Bryant Park, where, during the first days of +their honeymoon, they had always breakfasted. For sentimental +reasons they now revisited it. But Dolly was eager to return at +once to the flat and pack, and Carter seemed distraught. He +explained that he had had a bad night. + +"I'm so sorry," sympathized Dolly, "but to-night you will have a +fine sleep going up the Sound. Any more nightmares?" she asked. + +"Nightmares!" exploded Carter fiercely. "Nightmares they certainly +were! I dreamt two of the nightmares won! I saw them, all night, +just as I saw Dromedary, Her Highness and Glowworm, winning, +winning, winning!" + +"Those were the horses you spoke about last night," said Dolly +severely. "After so wonderful a day, of course you dreamt of +racing, and those two horses were in your mind. That's the +explanation." + +They returned to the flat and began, industriously, to pack. About +twelve o'clock Carter, coming suddenly into the bedroom where Dolly +was alone, found her reading the MORNING TELEGRAPH. It was open at +the racing page of "past performances." + +She dropped the paper guiltily. Carter kicked a hat-box out of his +way and sat down on a trunk. + +"I don't see," he began, "why we can't wait one more day. We'd be +just as near the ocean at Sheepshead Bay race-track as on a Fall +River boat, and----" He halted and frowned unhappily. "We needn't +bet more than ten dollars," he begged. + +"Of course," declared Dolly, "if they SHOULD win, you'll always +blame ME!" Carter's eyes shone hopefully. + +"And," continued Dolly, I can't bear to have you blame me. So----" + +"Get your hat!" shouted Carter, "or we'll miss the first race." + +Carter telephoned for a cab, and as they were entering it said +guiltily: "I've got to stop at the bank." + +"You have NOT!" announced Dolly. "That money is to keep us alive +while you write the great American novel. I'm glad to spend another +day at the races, and I'm willing to back your dreams as far as ten +dollars, but for no more." + +"If my dreams come true," warned Carter, you'll be awfully sorry." + +"Not I," said Dolly. "I'll merely send you to bed, and you can go +on dreaming." + +When Her Highness romped home, an easy winner, the look Dolly +turned upon her husband was one both of fear and dismay. + +"I don't like it!" she gasped. "It's--it's uncanny. It gives me a +creepy feeling. It makes you seem sort of supernatural. And oh," +she cried, "if only I had let you bet all you had with you!" + +"I did," stammered Carter, in extreme agitation. " I bet four +hundred. I got five to one, Dolly," he gasped, in awe; "we've won +two thousand dollars." + +Dolly exclaimed rapturously: "We'll put it all in bank," she cried. + +"We'll put it all on Glowworm!" said her husband. + +"Champ!" begged Dolly. "Don't push your luck. Stop while----" +Carter shook his head. + +"It's NOT luck!" he growled. "It's a gift, it's second sight, it's +prophecy. I've been a full-fledged clairvoyant all my life, and +didn't know it. Anyway, I'm a sport, and after two of my dreams +breaking right, I've got to back the third one!" + +Glowworm was at ten to one, and at those odds the book-makers to +whom he first applied did not care to take so large a sum as he +offered. Carter found a book-maker named "Sol" Burbank who, at +those odds, accepted his two thousand. + +When Carter returned to collect his twenty-two thousand, there was +some little delay while Burbank borrowed a portion of it. He looked +at Carter curiously and none too genially. + +"Wasn't it you," he asked, "that had that thirty-to-one shot +yesterday on Dromedary?" Carter nodded somewhat guiltily. A man in +the crowd volunteered: "And he had Her Highness in the second, too, +for four hundred." + +"You've made a good day," said Burbank. "Give me a chance to get my +money back to-morrow. + +"I'm sorry," said Carter. "I'm leaving New York to-morrow." + +The same scarlet car bore them back triumphant to the bank. + +"Twenty-two thousand dollars?" gasped Carter, "in CASH! How in the +name of all that's honest can we celebrate winning twenty-two +thousand dollars? We can't eat more than one dinner; we can't drink +more than two quarts of champagne--not without serious results." + +"I'll tell you what we can do!" cried Dolly excitedly. "We can sail +to-morrow on the CAMPANIA!" + +"Hurrah!" shouted Carter. "We'll have a second honey-moon. We'll +shoot up London and Paris. We'll tear slices out of the map of +Europe. You'll ride in one motor-car, I'll ride in another, we'll +have a maid and a valet in a third, and we'll race each other all +the way to Monte Carlo. And, there, I'll dream of the winning +numbers, and we'll break the bank. When does the CAMPANIA sail?" + +"At noon," said Dolly. + +"At eight we will be on board," said Carter. + +But that night in his dreams he saw King Pepper, Confederate, and +Red Wing each win a race. And in the morning neither the engines of +the CAMPANIA nor the entreaties of Dolly could keep him from the +race-track. + +"I want only six thousand," he protested. "You can do what you like +with the rest, but I am going to bet six thousand on the first one +of those three to start. If he loses, I give you my word I'll not +bet another cent, and we'll sail on Saturday. If he wins Out, I'll +put all I make on the two others." + +"Can't you see," begged Dolly, "that your dreams are just a rehash +of what you think during the day? You have been playing in +wonderful luck, that's all. Each of those horses is likely to win +his race. When he does you will have more faith than ever in your +silly dreams----" + +"My silly dreams," said Carter grinning, "are carrying you to +Europe, first class, by the next steamer." + +They had been talking while on their way to the bank. When Dolly +saw she could not alter his purpose, she made him place the +nineteen thousand that remained, after he had taken out the six +thousand, in her name. She then drew out the entire amount. + +"You told me," said Dolly, smiling anxiously, I could do what I +liked with it. Maybe I have dreams also. Maybe I mean to back +them." + +She drove away, mysteriously refusing to tell him what she intended +to do. When they met at luncheon, she was still much excited, still +bristling with a concealed secret. + +"Did you back your dream?" asked Carter. + +Dolly nodded happily. + +"And when am I to know?" + +"You will read of it," said Dolly, "to-morrow, in the morning +papers. It's all quite correct. My lawyers arranged it." + +"Lawyers!" gasped her husband. "You're not arranging to lock me in +a private madhouse, are you?" + +"No," laughed Dolly; "but when I told them how I intended to invest +the money they came near putting me there." + +"Didn't they want to know how you suddenly got so rich?" asked +Carter. + +"They did. I told them it came from my husband's 'books'! It was a +very 'near' false-hood." + +"It was worse," said Carter. "It was a very poor pun." + +As in their honey-moon days they drove proudly to the track, and +when Carter had placed Dolly in a box large enough for twenty, he +pushed his way into the crowd around the stand of "Sol" Burbank. +That veteran of the turf welcomed him gladly. + +"Coming to give me my money back?" he called. + +"No, to take some away," said Carter, handing him his six thousand. + +Without apparently looking at it, Burbank passed it to his cashier. +"King Pepper, twelve to six thousand," he called. + +When King Pepper won, and Carter moved around the ring with +eighteen thousand dollars in thousand and five hundred dollar bills +in his fist, he found himself beset by a crowd of curious, eager +"pikers." They both impeded his operations and acted as a +body-guard. Confederate was an almost prohibitive favorite at one +to three, and in placing eighteen thousand that he might win six, +Carter found little difficulty. When Confederate won, and he +started with his twenty-four thousand to back Red Wing, the crowd +now engulfed him. Men and boys who when they wagered five and ten +dollars were risking their all, found in the sight of a young man +offering bets in hundreds and thousands a thrilling and fascinating +spectacle. + +To learn what horse he was playing and at what odds, racing touts +and runners for other book-makers and individual speculators leaped +into the mob that surrounded him, and then, squirming their way +out, ran shrieking down the line. In ten minutes, through the bets +of Carter and those that backed his luck, the odds against Red Wing +were forced down from fifteen to one to even money. His approach +was hailed by the book-makers either with jeers or with shouts of +welcome. Those who had lost demanded a chance to regain their +money. Those with whom he had not bet, found in that fact +consolation, and chaffed the losers. Some curtly refused even the +smallest part of his money. + +"Not with me!" they laughed. From stand to stand the layers of odds +taunted him, or each other. "Don't touch it, it's tainted!" they +shouted. "Look out, Joe, he's the Jonah man?" Or, "Come at me +again!" they called. "And, once more!" they challenged as they +reached for a thousand-dollar bill. + +And, when in time, each shook his head and grumbled: "That's all I +want," or looked the other way, the mob around Carter jeered. + +"He's fought 'em to a stand-still!" they shouted jubilantly. In +their eyes a man who alone was able and willing to wipe the name of +a horse off the blackboards was a hero. + +To the horror of Dolly, instead of watching the horses parade past, +the crowd gathered in front of her box and pointed and stared at +her. From the club-house her men friends and acquaintances invaded +it. + +"Has Carter gone mad?" they demanded. "He's dealing out +thousand-dollar bills like cigarettes. He's turned the ring into a +wheat Pit!" + +When he reached the box a sun-burned man in a sombrero blocked his +way. + +"I'm the owner of Red Wing," he explained, "bred him and trained +him myself. I know he'll be lucky if he gets the place. You're +backing him in thousands to WIN. What do you know about him?" + +"Know he will win," said Carter. + +The veteran commissioner of the club stand buttonholed him. "Mr. +Carter," he begged, "why don't you bet through me? I'll give you as +good odds as they will in that ring. You don't want your clothes +torn off you and your money taken from you." + +"They haven't taken such a lot of it yet," said Carter. + +When Red Wing won, the crowd beneath the box, the men in the box, +and the people standing around it, most of whom had followed +Carter's plunge, cheered and fell over him, to shake hands and +pound him on the back. From every side excited photographers +pointed cameras, and Lander's band played: " Every Little Bit Added +to What You've Got Makes Just a Little Bit More." As he left the +box to collect his money, a big man with a brown mustache and two +smooth-shaven giants closed in around him, as tackles interfere for +the man who has the ball. The big man took him by the arm. Carter +shook himself free. + +"What's the idea?" he demanded. + +"I'm Pinkerton," said the big man genially. "You need a body- +guard. If you've got an empty seat in your car, I'll drive home +with you. From Cavanaugh they borrowed a book-maker's hand-bag and +stuffed it with thousand-dollar bills. When they stepped into the +car the crowd still surrounded them. + +"He's taking it home in a trunk!" they yelled. + +That night the "sporting extras" of the afternoon papers gave +prominence to the luck at the races of Champneys Carter. From +Cavanaugh and the book-makers, the racing reporters had gathered +accounts of his winnings. They stated that in three successive +days, starting with one hundred dollars, he had at the end of the +third day not lost a single bet, and that afternoon, on the last +race alone, he had won sixty to seventy thousand dollars. With the +text, they "ran" pictures of Carter at the track, of Dolly in her +box, and of Mrs. Ingram in a tiara and ball-dress. + +Mother-in-law WILL be pleased cried Carter. In some alarm as to +what the newspapers might say on the morrow, he ordered that in the +morning a copy of each be sent to his room. That night in his +dreams he saw clouds of dust-covered jackets and horses with +sweating flanks, and one of them named Ambitious led all the rest. +When he woke, he said to Dolly: "That horse Ambitious will win +to-day." + +"He can do just as he likes about THAT! "replied Dolly. "I have +something on my mind much more important than horse- racing. To-day +you are to learn how I spent your money. It's to be in the morning +papers." + +When he came to breakfast, Dolly was on her knees. For his +inspection she had spread the newspapers on the floor, opened at an +advertisement that appeared in each. In the Centre of a half-page +of white paper were the lines: + +SOLD OUT IN ONE DAY! + +ENTIRE FIRST EDITION + +THE DEAD HEAT + +BY + +CHAMPNEYS CARTER + +SECOND EDITION ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND + +In Heaven's name! " roared Carter. "What does this mean?" + +"It means," cried Dolly tremulously, "I'm backing my dream. I've +always believed in your book. Now, I'm backing it. Our lawyers sent +me to an advertising agent. His name is Spink, and he is awfully +clever. I asked him if he could advertise a book so as to make it +sell. He said with my money and his ideas he could sell last year's +telephone book to people who did not own a telephone, and who had +never learned to read. He is proud of his ideas. One of them was +buying out the first edition. Your publishers told him your book +was 'waste paper,' and that he could have every copy in stock for +the cost of the plates. So he bought the whole edition. That's how +it was sold out in one day. Then we ordered a second edition of one +hundred thousand, and they're printing it now. + +"The presses have been working all night to meet the demand!" + +"But," cried Carter, " there isn't any demand! " + +"There will be," said Dolly, "when five million people read our +advertisements." + +She dragged him to the window and pointed triumphantly into the +street. + +"See that!" she said. "Mr. Spink sent them here for me to inspect." + +Drawn up in a line that stretched from Fifth Avenue to Broadway +were an army of sandwich men. On the boards they carried were the +words: "Read 'The Dead Heat.' Second Edition. One Hundred +Thousand!" On the fence in front of the building going up across +the street, in letters a foot high, Carter again read the name of +his novel. In letters in size more modest, but in colors more +defiant, it glared at him from ash-cans and barrels. + +"How much does this cost?" he gasped. + +"It cost every dollar you had in bank," said Dolly, "and before we +are through it will cost you twice as much more. Mr. Spink is only +waiting to hear from me before he starts spending fifty thousand +dollars; that's only half of what you won on Red Wing. I'm only +waiting for you to make me out a check before I tell Spink to start +spending it." + +In a dazed state Carter drew a check for fifty thousand dollars and +meekly handed it to his wife. They carried it themselves to the +office of Mr. Spink. On their way, on every side they saw evidences +of his handiwork. On walls, on scaffolding, on bill-boards were +advertisements of "The Dead Heat." Over Madison Square a huge kite +as large as a Zeppelin air-ship painted the name of the book +against the sky, on "dodgers" it floated in the air, on handbills +it stared up from the gutters. + +Mr. Spink was a nervous young man with a bald head and eye- +glasses. He grasped the check as a general might welcome fifty +thousand fresh troops. + +"Reinforcements!" he cried. "Now, watch me. Now I can do things +that are big, national, Napoleonic. We can't get those books bound +inside of a week, but meanwhile orders will be pouring in, people +will be growing crazy for it. Every man, woman, and child in +Greater New York will want a copy. I've sent out fifty boys dressed +as jockeys on horseback to ride neck and neck up and down every +avenue. 'The Dead Heat' is printed on the saddle-cloth. Half of +them have been arrested already. It's a little idea of my own." + +"But," protested Carter, "it's not a racing story, it's a detective +story!" + +"The devil it is!" gasped Spink. "But what's the difference! " he +exclaimed. " They've got to buy it anyway. They'd buy it if it was +a cook-book. And, I say," he cried delightedly, "that's great press +work you're doing for the book at the races! The papers are full of +you this morning, and every man who reads about your luck at the +track will see your name as the author of 'The Dead Heat,' and will +rush to buy the book. He'll think 'The Dead Heat' is a guide to the +turf!" + +When Carter reached the track he found his notoriety had preceded +him. Ambitious did no run until the fourth race, and until then, as +he sat in his box, an eager crowd surged below. He had never known +such popularity. The crowd had read the newspapers, and such +head-lines as "He Cannot Lose!" "Young Carter Wins $70,000!" "Boy +Plunger Wins Again!" "Carter Makes Big Killing!" "The Ring Hit +Hard!" "The Man Who Cannot Lose!" "Carter Beats Book-makers!" had +whetted their curiosity and filled many with absolute faith in his +luck. Men he had not seen in years grasped him by the hand and +carelessly asked if he could tell of something good. Friends old +and new begged him to dine with them, to immediately have a drink +With them, at least to "try" a cigar. Men who protested they had +lost their all begged for just a hint which would help them to come +out even, and every one, without exception, assured him he was +going to buy his latest book. + +"I tried to get it last night at a dozen news-stands," many of them +said, "but they told me the entire edition was exhausted." + +The crowd of hungry-eyed race-goers waiting below the box, and +watching Carter's every movement, distressed Dolly. + +"I hate it!" she cried. "They look at you like a lot of starved +dogs begging for a bone. Let's go home; we don't want to make any +more money, and we may lose what we have. And I want it all to +advertise the book." + +"If you're not careful," said Carter, "some one will buy that book +and read it, and then you and Spink will have to take shelter in a +cyclone cellar." + +When he arose to make his bet on Ambitious, his friends from the +club stand and a half-dozen of Pinkerton's men closed in around him +and in a flying wedge pushed into the ring. The news-papers had +done their work, and he was instantly surrounded by a hungry, +howling mob. In comparison with the one of the previous day, it was +as a foot-ball scrimmage to a run on a bank. When he made his first +wager and the crowd learned the name of the horse, it broke with a. +yell into hundreds of flying missiles which hurled themselves at +the book-makers. Under their attack, as on the day before, +Ambitious receded to even money. There was hardly a person at the +track who did not back the luck of the man who "could not lose." +And when Ambitious won easily, it was not the horse or the jockey +that was cheered, but the young man in the box. + +In New York the extras had already announced that he was again +lucky, and when Dolly and Carter reached the bank they found the +entire staff on hand to receive him and his winnings. They amounted +to a sum so magnificent that Carter found for the rest of their +lives the interest would furnish Dolly and himself an income upon +which they could live modestly and well. + +A distinguished-looking, white-haired official of the bank +congratulated Carter warmly. "Should you wish to invest some of +this," he said, " I should be glad to advise you. My knowledge in +that direction may be wider than your own." + +Carter murmured his thanks. The white-haired gentleman lowered his +voice. "On certain other subjects," he continued, "you know many +things of which I am totally ignorant. Could you tell me," he asked +carelessly, "who will win the Suburban to-morrow? " + +Carter frowned mysteriously. "I can tell you better in the +morning," he said. "It looks like Beldame, with Proper and First +Mason within call." + +The white-haired man showed his surprise and also that his +ignorance was not as profound as he suggested. + +"I thought the Keene entry----" he ventured. + +"I know," said Carter doubtfully. "If it were for a mile, I would +say Delhi, but I don't think he can last the distance. In the +morning I'll wire you." + +As they settled back in their car, Carter took both of Dolly's +hands in his. "So far as money goes," he said, "we are independent +of your mother--independent of my books; and I want to make you a +promise. I want to promise you that, no matter what I dream in the +future, I'll never back another horse." Dolly gave a gasp of +satisfaction. + +"And what's more," added Carter hastily, "not another dollar can +you risk in backing my books. After this, they've got to stand or +fall on their legs!" + +"Agreed!" cried Dolly. "Our plunging days are over." + +When they reached the flat they found waiting for Carter the junior +partner of a real publishing house. He had a blank contract, and he +wanted to secure the right to publish Carter's next book. + +"I have a few short stories----" suggested Carter. + +Collections of short stories, protested the visitor truthfully, "do +not sell. We would prefer another novel on the same lines as 'The +Dead Heat.'" + +"Have you read 'The Dead Heat'?" asked Carter. + +"I have not," admitted the publisher, but the next book by the same +author is sure to----. We will pay in advance of royalties fifteen +thousand dollars." + +"Could you put that in writing?" asked Carter. When the publisher +was leaving he said: + +"I see your success in literature is equaled by your success at the +races. Could you tell me what will win the Suburban?" + +"I will send you a wire in the MORNING," said Carter. + +They had arranged to dine with some friends and later to visit a +musical comedy. Carter had changed his clothes, and, while he was +waiting for Dolly to dress, was reclining in a huge arm-chair. The +heat of the day, the excitement, and the wear on his nerves caused +his head to sink back, his eyes to close, and his limbs to relax. + +When, by her entrance, Dolly woke him, he jumped up in some +confusion. + +"You've been asleep," she mocked. + +"Worse!" said Carter. "I've been dreaming! Shall I tell you who is +going to win the Suburban?" + +"Champneys!" cried Dolly in alarm. + +"My dear Dolly," protested her husband, "I promised to stop +betting. I did not promise to stop sleeping." + +"Well," sighed Dolly, with relief, "as long as it stops at that. +Delhi will win," she added. "Delhi will not," said Carter. "This is +how they will finish----"He scribbled three names on a piece of +paper which Dolly read. + +"But that," she said, "is what you told the gentleman at the bank." + +Carter stared at her blankly and in some embarrassment. + +"You see!" cried Dolly, "what you think when you're awake, you +dream when you're asleep. And you had a run of luck that never +happened before and could never happen again." + +Carter received her explanation with reluctance. "I wonder," he +said. + +On arriving at the theatre they found their host had reserved a +stage-box, and as there were but four in their party, and as, when +they entered, the house lights were up, their arrival drew upon +them the attention both of those in the audience and of those on +the stage. The theatre was crowded to its capacity, and in every +part were people who were habitual race-goers, as well as many +racing men who had come to town for the Suburban. By these, as well +as by many others who for three days had seen innumerable pictures +of him, Carter was instantly recognized. To the audience and to the +performers the man who always won was of far greater interest than +what for the three-hundredth night was going forward on the stage. +And when the leading woman, Blanche Winter, asked the comedian +which he would rather be, "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte +Carlo or the Man Who Can Not Lose?" she gained from the audience an +easy laugh and from the chorus an excited giggle. + +When, at the end of the act, Carter went into the lobby to smoke, +he was so quickly surrounded that he sought refuge on Broadway. +From there, the crowd still following him, he was driven back into +his box. Meanwhile, the interest shown in him had not been lost +upon the press agent of the theatre, and he at once telephoned to +the newspaper offices that Plunger Carter, the book-maker breaker, +was at that theatre, and if that the newspapers wanted a chance to +interview him on the probable out-come of the classic handicap to +be run on the morrow, he, the press agent, would unselfishly assist +them. In answer to these hurry calls, reporters of the Ten o'Clock +Club assembled in the foyer. How far what later followed was due to +their presence and to the efforts of the press agent only that +gentleman can tell. It was in the second act that Miss Blanche +Winter sang her topical song. In it she advised the audience when +anxious to settle any question of personal or national interest to +"Put it up to the Man in the Moon.'" This night she introduced a +verse in which she told of her desire to know which horse on the +morrow would win the Suburban, and, in the chorus, expressed her +determination to "Put it up to the Man in the Moon." + +Instantly from the back of the house a voice called: "Why don't you +put it up to the Man in the Box?" Miss Winter laughed-the audience +laughed; all eyes were turned toward Carter. As though the idea +pleased them, from different parts of the house people applauded +heartily. In embarrassment, Carter shoved back his chair and pulled +the curtain of the box between him and the audience. But he was not +so easily to escape. Leaving the orchestra to continue unheeded +with the prelude to the next verse, Miss Winter walked slowly and +deliberately toward him, smiling mischievously. In burlesque +entreaty, she held out her arms. She made a most appealing and +charming picture, and of that fact she was well aware. In a voice +loud enough to reach every part of the house, she addressed herself +to Carter: + +"Won't you tell ME?" she begged. + +Carter, blushing unhappily, shrugged his shoulders in apology. + +With a wave of her hand Miss Winter designated the audience. +"Then," she coaxed, reproachfully, "won't you tell THEM?" + +Again, instantly, with a promptness and unanimity that sounded +suspiciously as though it came from ushers well rehearsed, several +voice echoed her petition: "Give us all a chance!'' shouted one. +"Don't keep the good things to yourself! " reproached another. " I +want to get rich, TOO!" wailed a third. In his heart, Carter prayed +they would choke. But the audience, so far from resenting the +interruptions, encouraged them, and Carter's obvious discomfort +added to its amusement. It proceeded to assail him with applause, +with appeals, with commands to "speak up." + +The hand-clapping became general-insistent. The audience would not +be denied. Carter turned to Dolly. In the recesses of the box she +was enjoying his predicament. His friends also were laughing at +him. Indignant at their desertion, Carter grinned vindictively. +"All right," he muttered over his shoulder. "Since you think it's +funny, I'll show you !" He pulled his pencil from his watch-chain +and, spreading his programme on the ledge of the box, began to +write. + +From the audience there rose a murmur of incredulity, of surprise, +of excited interest. In the rear of the house the press agent, +after one startled look, doubled up in an ecstasy of joy. "We've +landed him !" he gasped. "We've landed him He's going to fall for +it!" + +Dolly frantically clasped her husband by the coat-tail. + +"Champ!" she implored, "what are you doing?" + +Quite calmly , quite confidently, Carter rose. Leaning forward with +a nod and a smile, he presented the programme to the beautiful Miss +Winter. That lady all but snatched at it. The spot-light was full +in her eyes. Turning her back that she might the more easily read, +she stood for a moment, her pretty figure trembling with eagerness, +her pretty eyes bent upon the programme. The house had grown +suddenly still, and with an excited gesture, the leader of the +orchestra commanded the music to silence A man, bursting with +impatience, broke the tense quiet. "Read it!" he shouted. + +In a frightened voice that in the sudden hush held none of its +usual confidence, Miss Winter read slowly: " The favorite cannot +last the distance. Will lead for the mile and give way to Beldame. +Proper takes the place. First Mason will show. Beldame will win by +a length." + +Before she had ceased reading, a dozen men had struggled to their +feet and a hundred voice were roaring at her. "Read that again !" +the chorused. Once more Miss Winter read the message, but before +she had finished half of those in the front rows were scrambling +from their seats and racing up the aisles. Already the reporters +were ahead of them, and in the neighborhood not one telephone booth +was empty. Within five minutes, in those hotels along the White Way +where sporting men are wont to meet, betting commissioners and +hand-book men were suddenly assaulted by breathless gentlemen, some +in evening dress, some without collars, and some without hats, but +all with money to bet against the favorite. And, an hour later, +men, bent under stacks of newspaper "extras," were vomited from the +subway stations into the heart of Broadway, and in raucous tones +were shrieking, "Winner of the Suburban," sixteen hours before that +race was run. That night to every big newspaper office from Maine +to California, was flashed the news that Plunger Carter, in a +Broadway theatre, had announced that the favorite for the Suburban +would be beaten, and, in order, had named the three horses that +would first finish. + +Up and down Broadway, from rathskellers to roof-gardens, in cafes +and lobster palaces, on the corners of the cross-roads, in clubs +and all-night restaurants, Carter's tip was as a red rag to a bull. + +Was the boy drunk, they demanded, or had his miraculous luck turned +his head? Otherwise, why would he so publicly utter a prophecy that +on the morrow must certainly smother him with ridicule. The +explanations were varied. The men in the clubs held he was driven +by a desire for notoriety, the men in the street that he was more +clever than they guessed, and had made the move to suit his own +book, to alter the odds to his own advantage. Others frowned +mysteriously. With superstitious faith in his luck, they pointed to +his record. "Has he ever lost a bet? How do WE know what HE knows?" +they demanded. "Perhaps it's fixed and he knows it!" + +The "wise" ones howled in derision. "A Suburban FIXED!" they +retorted. "You can fix ONE jockey, you can fix TWO; but you can't +fix sixteen jockeys! You can't fix Belmont, you can't fix Keene. +There's nothing in his picking Beldame, but only a crazy man would +pick the horse for the place and to show, and shut out the +favorite! The boy ought to be in Matteawan. + +Still undisturbed, still confident to those to whom he had promised +them, Carter sent a wire. Nor did he forget his old enemy, "Sol" +Burbank. " If you want to get some of the money I took," he +telegraphed, "wipe out the Belmont entry and take all they offer on +Delhi. He cannot win." + +And that night, when each newspaper called him up at his flat, he +made the same answer. "The three horses Will finish as I said. You +can state that I gave the information as I did as a sort of present +to the people of New York City." + +In the papers the next morning "Carter's Tip" was the front- page +feature. Even those who never in the racing of horses felt any +concern could not help but take in the outcome of this one a +curious interest. The audacity of the prophecy, the very absurdity +of it, presupposing, as it did, occult power, was in itself +amusing. And when the curtain rose on the Suburban it was evident +that to thousands what the Man Who Could Not Lose had foretold was +a serious and inspired utterance. + +This time his friends gathered around him, not to benefit by his +advice, but to protect him. "They'll mob you!" they warned. +"They'll tear the clothes off your back. Better make your getaway +now." + +Dolly, with tears in her eyes, sat beside him. Every now and again +she touched his hand. Below his box, as around a newspaper office +on the night when a president is elected, the people crushed in a +turbulent mob. Some mocked and jeered, some who on his tip had +risked their every dollar, hailed him hopefully. On every side +policemen, fearful of coming trouble, hemmed him in. Carter was +bored extremely, heartily sorry he had on the night before given +way to what he now saw as a perverse impulse. But he still was +confident, still undismayed. + +To all eyes, except those of Dolly, he was of all those at the +track the least concerned. To her he turned and, in a low tone, +spoke swiftly. "I am so sorry," he begged. "But, indeed, indeed, I +can't lose. You must have faith in me." + +"In you, yes," returned Dolly in a whisper, "but in your dreams, +no!" + +The horses were passing on their way to the post. Carter brought +his face close to hers. + +"I'm going to break my promise," he said, "and make one more bet, +this one with you. I bet you a kiss that I'm right." + +Dolly, holding back her tears, smiled mournfully. "Make it a +hundred," she said. + +Half of the forty thousand at the track had backed Delhi, the other +half, following Carter's luck and his confidence in proclaiming his +convictions, had backed Beldame. Many hundred had gone so far as to +bet that the three horses he had named would finish as he had +foretold. But, in spite of Carter's tip, Delhi still was the +favorite, and when the thousands saw the Keene polka-dots leap to +the front, and by two lengths stay there, for the quarter, the +half, and for the three- quarters, the air was shattered with +jubilant, triumphant yells. And then suddenly, with the swiftness +of a moving picture, in the very moment of his victory, Beldame +crept up on the favorite, drew alongside, drew ahead passed him, +and left him beaten. It was at the mile. + +The night before a man had risen in a theatre and said to two +thousand people: "The favorite will lead for the mile, and give way +to Beldame." Could they have believed him, the men who now cursed +themselves might for the rest of their lives have lived upon their +winnings. Those who had followed his prophecy faithfully, +superstitiously, now shrieked in happy, riotous +self-congratulation. "At the MILE!" they yelled. "He TOLD you, at +the MILE!" They turned toward Carter and shook Panama hats at him. +"Oh, you Carter!" they shrieked lovingly. + +It was more than a race the crowd was watching now, it was the +working out of a promise. And when Beldame stood off Proper's rush, +and Proper fell to second, and First Mason followed three lengths +in the rear, and in that order they flashed under the wire, the +yells were not that a race had been won, but that a prophecy had +been fulfilled. + +Of the thousands that cheered Carter and fell upon him and indeed +did tear his clothes off his back, one of his friends alone was +sufficiently unselfish to think of what it might, mean to Carter. + +"Champ!" roared his friend, pounding him on both shoulders. "You +old wizard! I win ten thousand! How much do you win?" + +Carter cast a swift glance at Dolly. he said, "I win much more than +that." + +And Dolly, raising her eyes to his, nodded and smiled contentedly. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext of The Man Who Could Not Lose, by Davis + diff --git a/old/mwcnl10.zip b/old/mwcnl10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..eff722d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/mwcnl10.zip |