“What yoh mean?” demanded Mr. Fox, but weakly. “Ain’ Ah done slip yoh eight hunnerd an’ forty dollah?”
“Yoh suah done so,” admitted Pro, “an’ yeh done win twicet ez much ez yoh ’mit yoh win. Ah mean yoh done cheat an’ lie an’ steal. Ah say Ah’s done, an’ Ah mean Ah’s done. Hyah whar yoh an’ me paht. Ah do mah own bettin’, an’ Ah doan’ tip no pikah.”
He strode indignantly from the bath-house, leaving Mr. Fox crushed. Presently he rallied and pursued, striving to learn what horse Prosias was betting on.
Up narrow stairways and down narrower steps into basements, into rooms behind pool parlors and rooms behind barber shops, into cigar stands, Pro dashed and dodged, leaving behind him a trail of quaking, alarmed colored men. The word spread over New Orleans that Prosias Trimble was plunging, but the bookmakers, anxious to lay off the bets, were close-mouthed and Clarence Fox strove in vain to discover which horse Pro was playing. By fifties, twenty-fives, and hundreds, Pro wagered his discounted share of Clarence Fox’s winnings, and slowly the odds on Irene W. to win the last race at Baltimo’ were driven downward from forty to one to six to one.
Just before post time for the final race, Pro, flushed and breathless, wagered the last ten dollars and stood in a small room where a telegraph operator clicked away at a key and received the news from the distant track.
“Two hundred at fohty mek eight thousan’,” he figured, “a hunnerd at thutty mek three thousan’, a hunnerd at twenty-five mek two thousan’ five hunnerd.”
Laboriously he checked off his bets and strove to strike the total.
“Ah win t’irteen thousan’ fibe hunnerd dollah,” he said dazedly. “Add dat eight hunnerd an’ fohty, and dat’ll mek me win fo’teen thousan’ t’ree hunnerd an’ fohty dollah.”
“Ah ’low when Ah gits to Baltimo’ Ah staht a stable ob hosses,” he said. “Ah ’low Ah call it de Miss Luck Stable. Mah colahs will be scahlet an’ puhple, wif a yaller sash an’ a green cap—”
His reverie was interrupted by the man at the telegraph instrument calling aloud what the clicking instrument told him.