Rounding the home bend into the straight in the last lap, there were still three in it—the trotter which had led throughout, Silver Streak, and the pertinacious crimson jacket. Each driver was doing all he knew, but Tugwood had the inside position, which he kept with a bit to spare, thus compelling the other two to go wide at the turn, and Carlton Mackrell and Chris both appreciated his fine and legitimate driving.
A great race ensued up the straight, all three horses' names being shouted in turn, each exhorted by their respective backers to "go on."
Amid a storm of cheers and encouragement the three flashed past the box, but Carlton Mackrell, from his intimate knowledge, knew that the one, two, Tugwood had given Silver Streak a few yards short of the judge, had done the trick, and snatched a bare victory.
Gay was trembling with excitement, while even Lossie sufficiently forgot herself to stand on tiptoe to watch the number board.
"It's all right," Carlton Mackrell announced. "He's putting No. 3 in the frame, and that's yours. Won by a neck, I should say, all out, in 3.32½."
Gay heaved a deep sigh, and then they all went on to the track, and, after Tugwood had dismounted, accompanied Silver Streak in a body to the stables.
The crowd gave Gay a hearty cheer as she passed the Ring, and this completed her cup of bliss. Min Toplady showered congratulations on her, and was so pleased that she actually smiled at Lossie, hastily composing her face the moment she realised the mistake.
CHAPTER IX
AT THE "TROTTING NAG"
It was by deliberate intention, not accident, that Lossie found the Professor alone on the day following Silver Streak's victory, and conveyed to his mind her own epicurean disgust at the associations to which Gay's new Trotting mania had exposed her, though jealousy at the increased opportunities of her cousin for meeting Carlton, was really at the bottom of her interference. Lightly, but maliciously, she ran over the whole scene, the surroundings at Waterloo Park, so utterly different to those of an ordinary race meeting, and, so far as she could see, without a gentlewoman present save Gay and herself. But when, in speaking of the "public-house ladies" present, she mentioned Min Toplady, the Professor visibly stiffened.