Again a mad shout goes up for Robin Adair.
"No, no—General!" comes the hoarse cry from a hundred throats.
But through it all, the wiser ones notice the gallant little mare, Queen Bess, coming slowly to the front.
Some daring voice shouts:
"Queen Bess! Queen Bess!"
"She is fresh as a daisy!" mutters some one in the box adjoining Jay Gardiner's.
White to the lips, Sally Pendleton sits and watches, her hands clasped tightly in her lap.
The babble of voices is so deafening that she can not hear.
Again the gallant steeds are specks in the distance. Now they pass the curve, and are on the home-stretch, dashing swiftly to the finish.
Nearer and nearer sounds the thunder of their oncoming hoofs. Ten thousand people grow mad with excitement as they dash on.