Frank Merriwell's Races

"He's a beauty!"

Jack Diamond uttered the exclamation. He was admiring a horse Frank Merriwell had lately purchased.

"He is," agreed Danny Griswold, with his hands thrust deep into his trousers pockets and his short legs set far apart. "But think of paying a thousand dollars!"

"He looks like a racer," declared Bruce Browning, who showed unusual interest and animation for a fellow who was known as the laziest man at Yale.

"He's got the marks of a swift one," asserted Diamond, walking around the bay gelding, which Frank Merriwell had led out into the middle of the stable floor for inspection. "He is rangey, has clean limbs, and a courageous eye. I shouldn't wonder if he could cover ground in a hurry."

"I did not buy him for a racer," asserted Frank. "I purchased him as a saddle horse purely for my own use and pleasure."

"You must have money to burn," chirped Griswold. "Your old man must have made loads of it. I had an uncle four times removed once who made money, but he got arrested when he tried to pass it."

"That reminds me of my father and his partner," said Browning, with apparent seriousness. "They formed a strange sort of a partnership. One of them stayed in New York all the time, while the other remained in California. In this manner they managed always to have plenty of money between them."

"Oh, goodness!" gasped Diamond, "if you fellows keep this up, I shall want to get away."

"If you want to get a weigh, we'll try to find some scales for you," chuckled Griswold, his eyes twinkling.

"They say Dan Dorman's father has plenty of money," said Frank.

"I've heard so," admitted Browning. "But Dorman is too mean to make much of a drain on the old man's pile."

"That's right," nodded Griswold. "Why, he is so mean that in the winter, when his hair gets long, he wets it thoroughly, and then goes out in the open air and lets it freeze."

"What does he do that for?"

"So he can break it off and save the price of a hair-cut!"

"Say," cried Diamond, desperately, "I thought you fellows were talking about a horse!"

"No," yawned Browning, "we're talking about a jackass."

Every one but Jack seemed to appreciate this, for they all grinned.

"Well," said the lad from Virginia, "Merriwell has brought out his horse for us to inspect, and I move we do so. After this is over, you may talk of anything you please."

"It is rather remarkable that you should pay such a price for a mere saddle horse," declared Browning.

"I simply kept my promise," smiled Frank.

"Your promise?"

"Exactly."

"What promise?"

"The one I made to myself when this horse enabled me to overtake a runaway that was dragging Winifred Lee to danger and possible death. This is the animal on which I pursued the runaway, and I took him without asking leave of the owner. I vowed that if this horse enabled me to catch and stop the runaway before Miss Lee was harmed I would own the creature if it took my last dollar," he added.

"And that," cried Griswold, trying to strike a dramatic attitude-"that is true love!"

"Well, I don't know as I blame you, Merriwell," admitted Bruce. "Winifred Lee is a stunning girl. But it strikes me that the owner of the horse swindled you."

A bit of additional color had risen to Frank's cheeks, and he looked strikingly handsome. The boys knew it would not do to carry the joke about Winnie Lee too far, and so they refrained.

"The man who owned the horse did not want to sell him at any price," explained Frank. "I induced him to set a price that he thought would settle me, and then I snapped him up so quickly it took away his breath."

"I should think your guardian would have kicked at throwing up a thousand for such a purpose."

"He did," laughed Frank, looking at Diamond, who showed a little confusion. "You remember that Jack, Rattleton and myself went on to Springfield to meet him a few days ago?"

"And got arrested for kidnaping a baby!" chuckled Griswold. "That was a corker. We didn't do a thing to you fellows when you got back here!"

"That's right," admitted Jack, dolefully. "Not a thing! You simply marched us through the streets and onto the campus with a band and banners and made a stunning show of us!"

"Well," said Frank, "Professor Scotch, my guardian, was so glad to get out of the scrape when the judge discharged us that he gave up the thousand without a flutter. That's how I got the money."

"Well," yawned Browning, "now you have the horse, you'll find him an expensive piece of furniture. It takes money to take care of 'em and feed 'em."

Diamond had been inspecting the gelding from all sides, surveying him with the air of one who knows something about horses, and he now asked:

"Has the creature a pedigree, old man?"

"Sure," nodded Frank. "Its pedigree is all right. I have it somewhere, but I don't care so much for that."

"Oh, I don't know! It may prove of value to you some day."

"How?"

"Well, you may take a fancy to enter Nemo in a race or two."

"What then?"

"If he should win, you'll want his pedigree."

"I suppose that is right, but I am no sportsman of the turf; that is professional. Amateur sports are good enough for me."

"Honest horse racing is one of the grandest sports in the world!" cried Jack, with flashing eyes.

"Honest horse racing!" laughed Griswold. "What's that? Where do you find anything like that?"

"Oh, there is such a thing."

"There may be, but people are not used to it."

"That's why I do not think much of horse racing," declared Frank. "There are too many tricks to it to suit me."

"Oh, there are tricks to any sort of sport."

"Very few to college sports. If a man is caught at anything crooked it means ruin for his college career, and he is sure to carry the stigma through life. I tell you college sports are honest, and that is why they are so favored by people of taste and refinement-people who care little or nothing for professional sports. The public sees the earnestness, the honesty, and the manhood in college sports and contests, and the patrons of such sports know they are not being done out of their money by a fake. Prize fighting in itself is not so bad, but the class of men who follow it have brought disgrace and disrepute upon it. Fights are 'fixed' in advance by these dishonest scoundrels, and the man who backs his judgment with his money is likely to be done out of his coin by the dirtiest kind of a deal."

"What makes me sore," said Diamond, "is that some sensational newspapers should send professional bruisers to witness our college football games and denounce them as more brutal than prize fights."

"That makes me a trifle warm under the collar," admitted Browning. "But I don't suppose we should mind what that class of papers say. Their motto is 'Anything for a sensation,' and the intelligent portion of the newspaper readers is onto them. These papers have faked so many things that they carry no weight when they do tell the truth."

"I wouldn't mind putting Nemo into a race just to see what sort of stuff there is in him," admitted Frank.

"Why don't you do it?" cried Diamond, eagerly.

"I wouldn't want to enter him in any of the races around here."

"Take him to New York."

"No; those races are beyond my limit. All I want to do is try him for my own satisfaction."

"Then run him into the Mystic Park races at Bethany. You can do that quietly enough."

"That's so," said Browning. "You can do that without attracting too much attention to yourself."

"We'll all go up and see the race," declared Griswold. "It will be great sport. Do it, old man!"

"But where can I get a jockey I can trust?"

"You'll have to scrub around for one, and take chances."

"No!" cried Merriwell, as a sudden thought struck him. "I can do better than that."

"How?"

"I have the fellow."

"Who?"

"A colored boy at home. He is fond of horses."

"Has he ever ridden in a race?"

"Twice."

"Did he win?"

"Once. My uncle, who kindly left me his fortune, was a crank on fast horses, and he owned a number of them. Toots could ride some of them that would allow nobody else to mount them. Uncle Asher had horses in the races every year, but he was often 'done' by his jockeys. He knew it well enough, but he found it impossible to get the sort of jockey he wanted. Toots begged to ride a race, but he was a little shaver, and uncle was afraid. Finally, one day, just before a race was to come off, Uncle Asher discovered that his jockey had sold out. At the last moment he fired the fellow, and was forced to let Toots ride, or withdraw his horse. Toots rode, and won. The next time he rode he might have won, but the horse was doped."

"He's just the chap you want!" nodded Jack, with satisfaction. "Put Nemo into the Bethany races, and let Toots ride him."

"I'll think of it," said Frank.

A hostler approached the group.

"Howdy do, Mr. Merriwell, sir?" he said. "One of your friends called to see your horse this morning, sir."

"One of my friends?" cried Frank, in surprise. "Who was it?"

"He gave his name as Diamond, sir-Jack Diamond."

Merriwell immediately turned on Jack and asked:

"Hello, how about this? Did you call to see Nemo this morning?"

"Not much!" exclaimed Jack. "This is the first time I have been here. The hostler is mistaken."

"You must have misunderstood your visitor, Grody," said Frank. "He could not have given his name as Jack Diamond, for this is Jack Diamond here."

The man stared at Jack, and then shook his head.

"That's not the feller," he declared.

"Of course not. Your visitor must have given you some other name."

"Not on your life," returned Grody, promptly. "He said his name was Jack Diamond, sir, and I will swear to that."

"Well, this is somewhat interesting!" came grimly from Frank. "What did he do, Grody?"

"He looked Nemo over, sir."

"Looked Nemo over how-in what way?"

"Why, I offered to take Nemo out of the stall, but he said no, not to bother, as he only wished to glance at the horse. He went to the stall, which same I showed him, and looked in. The door wasn't locked, for I had just been cleanin' the stall out. He opened the door and stood there some little time. First thing I knew he was gone. I went and looked into the stall, and he was examinin' Nemo's feet. He seemed wonderful interested in the horse, and I saw by the way he acted he knew something about horses."

"The interest deepens," observed Frank. "Go on, Grody."

"When he came out of the stall he says to me, says he, 'Merriwell has struck a right good piece of horseflesh there.' Says I, 'In the best of my judgment he has, sir.' Says he, 'I understand he paid a fancy figure for the gelding, something like a thousand, he told me.' Says I, 'If he told you that I have no doubt he told you correct, sir.' Then says he, 'Does he mean to race him?' 'That,' says I, 'bein' a friend of Mr. Merriwell, is something what you should know as well as I, or better.' Then he says, says he, 'Horses is mighty uncertain property, for you never can tell what may happen to them.' In this I agreed with him, but there was something about him I didn't like much. Then he went away."

Frank whistled.

"This is highly interesting," exclaimed Frank. "What did this fellow look like, Grody? Can you describe him?"

"Well, I looked him over rather careful like, sir, but I don't know as I can describe him particular, except that he had on a checked suit and wore a red necktie, in which were a blazer, genuine, or to the contrary. I know horses, but I'm no judge of diamonds. He was smooth shaved, and his jaw were rather square and his hair short. The eyes of him never looked straight at me once. Somehow I didn't think he were a student, for he made one or two breaks in the words he said that made his talk different from your student's. He didn't have that sort of real gentleman way with him neither."

Frank turned to his friends.

"Now what do you suppose this business means, fellows?" he asked.

"It means crookedness!" declared Diamond, rather excitedly. "I am dead sure of that!"

"It looks that way," admitted Browning.

"But what sort of crookedness can it mean?" asked Frank, bewildered. "What is the game?"

"That will develop later; but there is some kind of a game on, be sure of that," asserted Jack. "If not, why should anybody come here and give a fictitious name? That gives the whole thing away. Look out, Frank, all your enemies are not sleeping!"

"Well, it is time they let up on me," said Merriwell, seriously. "They have brought nothing but disaster and disgrace on themselves thus far, and--"

"Some of them are looking for revenge, mark what I say."

"I am tired of being bothered and harassed by petty enemies!" exclaimed Frank. "I have had considerable patience with the fellows who have worked against me, but there is a limit."

"That's right, and they would have reached the limit with me long ago," declared Diamond.

"Well, it is like this, Jack," said Frank; "it is almost always true that not all of a man's enemies are bad fellows. To begin with, you remember that you were my enemy, and now we are friends, and this is not the first time such a thing has happened with me."

"Well, if a man were bucking against me, I do not think I would wait to see how he would turn out before I bucked back."

"Oh, I am not in the habit of doing that. You will remember that I bucked back pretty hard in your case."

Jack did remember it, and he felt that Merriwell was capable of holding his own with his foes.

"You will do well to look out for your horse, all the same," said Diamond.

"That's right," grunted Browning. "If I were in your place, Merriwell, I'd watch out pretty sharp."

"I will," said Frank. "I'll have Toots come on here and keep watch over Nemo most of the time. When he is not here, Grody can take his place. If I have an enemy who thinks of stealing my horse, he'll have hard work to accomplish his design."

"Unless he does it before you get things arranged," said Griswold. "Put him up, Merriwell, and let's get out."

"I am going for a ride," said Frank. "Put the saddle on him, Grogan. Will see you later, fellows, if you are going now."

"We'll wait till you leave," yawned Browning. "There's no reason why we should tear our clothes hurrying away."

"You are not liable to tear your clothes doing anything," laughed Frank.

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