got a good horse cheap. You'd ought to've had a bet down on him, an'
won him out."

"He won," answered Porter, looking straight into the other's shifty
eyes, "but he's a long way from being a good horse--no dope horse is a
good horse."

"What're you givin' me?" demanded Langdon, angrily.

"Just what every blackguard ought to have--the truth."

"By God!" the Trainer began, in fierce blasphemy, but John Porter took a
step nearer, and his gray eyes pierced the other man's soul until it
shriveled like a dried leaf, and turned its anger into fear.

"Oh, if you want to crawl--if you don't want to take Lauzanne--"

But Porter again interrupted Langdon---"I said I'd take the horse, and I
will; but don't think that you're fooling me, Mr. Langdon. You're a
blackguard of the first water. Thank God, there are only a few
parasites such as you are racing--it's creatures like you that give the
sport a black eye. If I can only get at the bottom of what has been
done to-day, you'll get ruled off, and you'll stay ruled off. Now turn
Lauzanne over to Andy Dixon, and come into the Secretary's office, where
I'll give you a check for him."

"Well, we'll settle about the horse now, an' there'll be somethin' to
settle between us, John Porter, at some other time and some other
place," blustered Langdon, threateningly.