"I don't approve of racing for money," Tish said decidedly.

But Mr. Ellis shrugged his shoulders. "It's really hardly racing for
money," he explained. "The prizes cover the expenses of the racing-cars,
which are heavy naturally. The cars alone cost a young fortune."

"I see," said Tish. "I hadn't thought of it in that light. Well, why
didn't Morris Valley jump at the chance?"

He hesitated a moment before he answered. "It was my fault really," he
said. "They were willing enough to have the races, but it was a matter
of money. I made them a proposition to duplicate whatever prize money
they offered, and in return I was to have half the gate receipts and the
betting privileges."

Tish quite stiffened. "Clean sport!" she said sarcastically. "With
betting privileges!"

"You don't quite understand, dear lady," he explained. "Even in the
cleanest sport we cannot prevent a man's having an opinion and backing
it with his own money. What I intended to do was to regulate it.
Regulate it."

Tish was quite mollified. "Well, of course," she said, "I suppose since
it must be, it is better--er,--regulated. But why haven't you
succeeded?"

"An unfortunate thing happened just as I had the deal about to close,"
he replied, and drew a long breath. "The town had raised twenty-five