"He had me put up ye'r little bag o' gold on his mare. These are y'er
winnings." Mike smiled inwardly at the sum of money. "Sure, auld Andy
must have put a rock or two in the wee buckskin bag," he thought, but
aloud he said , "I never spile sport, an' I could not tell ye before,
but 'tis auld Andy Magee an' his famous racin' mare, the fastest quarter
mile horse bechune the state of Missouri and the Pacific ocean.

"'Tis the same game he's pulled on the gamblin' crooks all the way from
the Oregon line to Mariposa in the south. Even gettin' filled wit'
tanglefoot is part of the dodge. They cannot touch him an' the vaqueros
protect him fr'm the shootin'."

"But what about the tryout?"

"Also in the schame. The mare was cross-shod; meanin', two of her shoes,
the near front, an' the off hind wans, were twice as heavy as the others
She could not run top speed in th'm f'r love nor gold. Yesterday she was
shod in light racin' pads, an' under her own jockey. No horse on the
coast could catch her. An' always, the smart racin' gamblers play th'
auld man for a fool. Such is often the end of greed.

"Pay up the dad's gamblin' debts, an' bid this Knight o 'the Green Cloth
a swate an' long fare-ye-well. Then go an' be happy, me child."



The Dragon and the Tomahawk

IX