Hardshell said no more. He gripped Joe’s hand hard, and, after buying him a cigar, strolled away, humming “Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Love, with all thy quickening powers.”
There was an air of uneasiness hanging over the betting ring at the Fair Grounds track as the horses hand-galloped to the starting post in the fourth race. The air was surcharged with expectancy. Judges, always alert and watching for signs of dishonesty, stared at the horses and received frequent bulletins from the betting ring. Bookmakers, fearful of a sudden attack by betting commissioners backing a certain horse, held their chalk and erasers ready for rapid use. Bettors, hearing vague whispers of “something doing,” asked each other excitedly what was being played. Yet everything in the betting ring, paddock, and stand seemed tranquil. The betting was light. Attorney Jackson was favorite at seven to five, Patsy Frewen the second choice, at two to one, the others at odds of from four to twenty, with Mildred Rogers ranging from fifteen to twenty to one and only a few scattered bets registered on her. Yet from a score of cities all over America came frantic telegrams to gamblers, bookies, and owners, asking for track odds and inquiring the meaning of the terrific plunging on Mildred Rogers. Big Jim Long, using the efficient organization of the company, was betting the remaining funds of the concern. More than fifty thousand was bet in Chicago, thirty thousand in Louisville, twenty thousand in Cincinnati, then twelve thousand or more in other cities in which the Long Investment Company had offices.
There was a last minute plunge on Mildred Rogers at St. Louis by gamblers who had heard the news from outside, and the odds dropped quickly from fifteen to four to one.
As he tightened the girth for the last time, Hardshell Gaines whispered to Pete, his jockey:
“Take a toe holt and a tooth holt, Pete. Joe’ll git you off a-runnin’, and I got a pill in him that’d blow up a bank. It’s timed to go off about the half-mile if you ain’t too long at the post. All you got to do is sit still and hold on.”
Humming, he went to the book of his friend and wagered two dollars that Sword of Gideon would win. He was still humming when he went down to the rail to watch the horses start, and the hymn he hummed was, “Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise.”
Out by the barrier a perspiring starter was beseeching, swearing, threatening, and scolding, while a row of horses milled and maneuvered for position. In the midst of the mêlée of milling horses, Joe, the assistant starter, a buggy whip in one hand, sweated and swore as he appeared to be striving to make Sword of Gideon line up with the other horses. Out of the corner of his eye Joe watched the starter for the telltale movement which revealed the second that the starter would spring the barrier.
When that movement came Joe held the bridle bit of Sword of Gideon, and before the barrier flashed he threw the horse’s head around, leaped aside, and slashed him sharply across the quarters with the whip.
Sword of Gideon, stung into forgetfulness of fear, leaped forward. The barrier flashed past his nose and he leaped into full stride, two full lengths in the lead of the field before the others were under way.
Big Jim Long, his florid face mottled, hurled his chewed cigar against the ground and swore viciously. Sword of Gideon, running like a wild horse, opened up a gap of eight lengths between himself and the nearest pursuer in the first eighth of a mile. In vain Attorney Jackson’s jockey, remembering his instructions, spurred and urged his mount, striving to catch the flying leader and set the pace. At the half Attorney Jackson dropped back, beaten and out of it. Mildred Rogers’ rider, seeing the conspiracy going wrong, made a desperate effort to overtake the flying Sword. The nitroglycerine pellet had acted and the aged horse was running as he had run when he seemed destined to be champion. Length by length he increased his lead over the staggering, wabbling field, and tore down the stretch fifteen lengths ahead of Patsy Frewen.