Thoroughbreds Part 25

Journeying back to New York, Crane reviewed in detail his interview with Mrs. Porter. He congratulated himself upon his wisdom in having inst.i.tuted his love suit by proxy. With all his masterfulness he was very considerably in awe of Miss Allis. There was a not-to-be-daunted expression in her extraordinary eyes which made him feel that a love tilt with her would be a somewhat serious business. He pictured himself as an ardent lover; he would cut a droll figure in that role, he knew; emotions were hardly in his line. He might feel such an a.s.sertive emotion as love quite as strongly as anyone, in fact, did, but could he express himself with faultless consistency? He rather doubted it. His usual slow-advancing method was certainly ordained of this intricate endeavor; and he had made great progress with the mother, the one above all others to be placated; adversity, continuous as it promised to be, would probably settle Porter's influence in his favor. His plan of action plainly was to be often at Ringwood to familiarize the household with his presence. The acquiring of Diablo would facilitate that.

Diablo--a skate! He laughed to himself over his purchase. Certainly Langdon would laugh at him, too; not openly, of course; Crane wouldn't tolerate that. What an influence this girl had over him, to be sure! Any man who had endeavored to sell him a bad horse would have had a hopeless task; with but a nod of encouragement from Allis he would have bought every horse--all the useless crooks they had; the stable was full of them, Lauzanne among the rest.

The influence was dividing his nature into a dual one; starting into life infantile thoughts of a generous morality; an unrest of great vigor was coming to him, retribution; possibly the power to feel the difference between an avariciousness, fathering dishonesty, and this new recognition of other rights.

On his arrival in New York he sent for his trainer.

"I bought a horse at Ringwood. I want you to look after him, Langdon,"

he said. "Their man, Gaynor, will send him direct to your stables."

The Trainer's face brightened. "Did you get Lucretia after all?"

"No; I bought a big black, Diablo."

The look of delight faded from Langdon's eyes quickly. "The devil!" he exclaimed.

"That's what I said; that's his name."

"But he's the most uncertain brute that ever wore a set of plates.

You'll get no good of him, sir; he's bad, clean through. It's come down to him from his second sire, Robert the Devil, without a bit of the good, either. He'd break a man that would follow him."

"He won't break me," answered Crane, quietly; "nor you, either, Langdon--you've got too much sense."

This subtle tribute mollified the Trainer.

Crane proceeded: "I remember the horse quite well. Four thousand was paid for him as a yearling; as a two-year-old he was tried out good enough to win the Futurity; but when it came to racing he cut it and finished in the ruck."

"That's right," commented Langdon. "He owes me a good bit, that same Johnny; his people thought him a lead-pipe cinch, and I went down the line on him to my sorrow."

"Just so. You know him as well as I do. It's a great way to get acquainted with them, isn't it, Langdon; put your money on, and have the good thing go down?"

Langdon had the highest possible opinion of his master's astuteness and began to waver in his antipathy to Diablo.

"You think he's really good, then, sir; did he show you a fast trial?"

"I didn't even see the horse," Crane answered, looking dreamily out of the window. "I bought him to--"

He paused in reflection; he couldn't tell Langdon why he had bought him, and he hardly cared to have his prestige with the Trainer destroyed. He continued, shifting the subject--matter a trifle, "You did John Porter up over Lauzanne last summer, Langdon--"

"Me?" questioned 'the Trainer. Was Crane forgetting his share in the matter?

"Yes, you!" affirmed the other, looking him steadily in the eye. "You sold him Lauzanne, and Lauzanne was loaded."

Langdon said nothing. What the devil was coming?

"Well," drawled Crane, "Porter's badly hurt; he's out of the race for some time to come. They're friends of mine."

"They're friends," mused Langdon; "who in thunder are they?"

"They're friends of mine, and I offered to buy Lauzanne back, just to help them out; but the old man's daughter has got the Chestnut for a hack, and she won't sell him. It was Diablo's fault that Porter got the fall, so they were willing to part with him, and I took the brute."

This was certainly a new role for Crane to play, Langdon thought; his employer helping people out when they were in difficulties was a revelation. The Trainer felt inclined to laugh. No doubt there was something back of it all; some tout must have given Crane information of a fast gallop Diablo had done, and he had gone to Ringwood to buy the horse, thinking that Porter would be selling some of his racers owing to the accident.

Langdon tried to remember what Shandy had said about Diablo, or whether the boy had mentioned his name at all.

"I wonder what condition he's in?" the Trainer remarked, questioningly.

"Physically I think he's all right; it seems he galloped something under forty miles with Porter before he came a cropper. But I understand they had an imp of a boy, Sheedy, or 'Shaney'--"

"Shandy," corrected Langdon.

"Yes, that's the name," affirmed Crane, drawing a semicircle in the air with his cigar, "and he's a devil on wheels, by all accounts. Diablo's no angel, as you've said, Langdon, and this boy made him a heap worse.

You've handled some bad horses in your time, and know more about it than I do; but I'd suggest that you put Westley--he's a patient lad--to look after the Black; give him quite a bit of work, and when you've got him right, try him out with something, and if he shows any form we'll pick out a soft spot for him. Let me see, he's a maiden--fancy that, buying a four-year-old maiden!"

Langdon laughed approvingly. Crane was evidently coming back to his view of the case.

"Well, as I've said, he's a maiden, and we'll try and graduate him out of that cla.s.s. It will be a great chance for a killing if we can round him into his early two-year-old form; and you can do it, Langdon, if anybody on earth can."

"Now I've got him on his reputation," thought Crane, idly brushing specks of cigar ash from the front of his coat.

"Just as I thought," mused Langdon; "the old man's got a horse after his own heart. Everybody thinks Diablo's no good, but the boss has found out something, and is on for the biggest kind of a coup."

"How's The Dutchman coming on?" asked Crane, intimating by the question that the subject of Diablo bad been closed out, for the present, at least.

"Great. He cleans up his four quarts three times a day, and is as big as a cart horse. I never had a better doer in my hands. If he keeps well, and I think he will, you have a great chance with him for the Brooklyn Derbv."

"That's encouraging. There are some good horses in it, though, White Moth and others. However, I'll back The Dutchman to win fifty thousand, and there'll be ten thousand in that for you, Langdon, if it comes off."

The Trainer's mouth watered. Money was his G.o.d. Horses were all right as a means to an end, but the end itself was gold. He would stop at nothing to attain that end; his avaricious mind, stimulated by Crane's promise, came at once to the disturbing element in the pleasant prospect, Shandy's report of Lucretia's good form.

"Did you find out anything about Porter's mare Lucretia? I know White Moth's form; both fit and well. The Dutchman holds him safe over the Derby journey."

"No; I didn't hear anything about Porter's mare."

"I have," said Langdon, decisively. "I paid a boy to keep an eye on her, and he says she'll be hard to beat."

Crane frowned. "What boy?" he asked, abruptly.

"Shandy."

"Well, just drop that; chuck that game. John Porter has his own troubles. If he can win, let him. He can't if The Dutchman keeps well; but anyway, our own horses will keep us fully occupied."

Langdon was dumbfounded. If Crane had opened the Bible and read a chapter from St. Luke he would not have been more astonished. It had occurred to him that he had done a remarkably smart thing; he had expected commendation for his adroitness in looking after his master's interests. This disapprobation of such a trivial matter as the touting off of an opponent's horses was another new discovery in his master's character. Where were they at, anyway? Presently Crane would be asking him to give the public a fair run for their money each time out.

All at once a light dawned upon Langdon. Crane was doubling on him. He saw it like a flash. His employer had a tout on the ground himself; that was how he had got next some good performance of Diablo's. My, but it was clever; he could appreciate it. Crane rose in his estimation again.

Quite humbly he answered: "Very, well; it's not my funeral; I'll bring The Dutchman to the post fit to run the race of his life. If Lucretia beats him it won't be my fault. I thought perhaps you might want to hedge a bit on Porter's mare."

"I don't think it. I'll stand The Dutchman; there are too many in to start backing them all. Let me know if the Black gives you any encouragement, and I'll see about placing him."