“I’m willing,” said Alec, holding out his hand with a patronizing smile.
“I’ll see you damned first!” was all Huey said, as he rose slowly to his feet with a look of concentrated hatred in his eyes. “It’s your turn now, but, mark you, mine will come!”
The old man expressed no surprise at the rupture, perhaps he had foreseen it. He would take no side in the quarrel. He knew that the struggle for a woman was at the bottom of the feud, and the dispute about the mare a mere spark that had lit a hidden train of animosity.
He advised Alec what to do with the horse. He was to run him at small meetings, and not to win even then more than he was obliged. To avoid suspicion he was even to run her in the first Cup Meeting itself as a stiff ’un unless the weights were lighter than could be hoped for.
“Get her trained away in the bush where none of the sports will notice her, and if I am not mistaken she will do the trick for you.”
Huey also came to Old Sam for sympathy and advice, and while the old man was not willing to say anything more of Alec than that he was a fool to fall out with an old pal, he was willing enough to help Huey.
“I’ll tell you what I’ll do, lad. There are more horses than one in this district. Windsor and Richmond are the cradle of the Australian turf, there are more good ones, of the right sort, knocking about here than in any other place in the Colonies. If your mind’s set on having a flutter I’ll spend a day or two looking round and see what I can do for you.”
It was a week later that Huey received a telegram to go to Windsor, and from there to Wilberforce, to meet Soft Sam. He went at once; and was taken straight away to see a black horse grazing in a paddock.
“He’s not as cheap as the other,” said Soft Sam, “and I can’t say I’m quite so sweet on him; but then he’s a horse, and say what you like, a horse carries money better than a filly. He has never been raced. I heard on the quiet that the owner believes he is not sound, and he thinks I am a softy who knows no better. But take my tip, that horse is as sound as a bell.”
So another bargain was made, another horse changed owners, only the matter was kept quiet, not even Alec hearing that Huey had a horse in training.