"'I wasn't worried even a little bit when Bowling Brook was 'way in the lead in the stretch.
"'Hamburg's just laying in a soft spot right there, third, and when it comes to a drive, how cheap, he'll make a crab like Bowling Brook look!
"'Then the operator, after the ten seconds' delay following the announcement of the horses' positions in the stretch, called out:
"'"Bowling Brook wins!"
"'Say, I'm not an excitable kind of a duck, nor dead easy to keel over, but, on the level, my head went 'round and I had to grip hold of a chair top when I heard that announcement. I couldn't make it out. It seemed out of the question. I knew that my two pals hadn't dumped me, because hadn't I played $2,000 of their money? At first I thought the operator made a mistake, and I waited with a spark of hope for the confirmation of the race. The confirmation came in. Bowling Brook had walked in, and Hamburg had been disgracefully beaten.
"'An hour later I met my two pals downtown. They greeted me with grins, and held out their hands for the thousands.
"'"Thing didn't go through, did it?" I said to them. "Where was the mistake, anyhow? What was the white handkerchief—Hamburg's signal—waved for?"
"'They looked at me savagely. They were positive that I had tricked them—that I had really played Bowling Brook with the money and was holding it out on them.
"'"White handkerchief be blowed!" said the man that had given the signal, pulling a light yellow handkerchief from his pocket. "What color do you call this?"
"'Well, then I saw how the mistake had been made, and that I had made it. In the brilliant sunshine I had mistaken the light yellow handkerchief for a white one, and it was up to me. They didn't give me a chance to get in a word, though, for they believed, and believe yet, I suppose, that I had thrown them, and they both hopped me at once. I had to put up the fight of my life, but I downed them both finally with the aid of a chair and a spittoon, and got away. That's how I lost $15,000—counting the winnings we'd have made had I played Bowling Brook that time—by being color blind.'"