"’You’re going to make books across the way, ain’t you?’ the up-against-it-looking chap asked, with an inquiring look all around.
"’Well, what if we are?’ asked one of the bookies, just for the good-natured sake of breaking the silence.
"’Well,’ said the down-at-the-heel sport, ’I’ve got a couple o’ nags that have been running for the past six weeks over at the Maryland outlaw. They haven’t been one, two, six in any race over there, and I’ve gone broke paying entrance fees for ’em. Maybe they’ll be able to do better over across the way at Alexander. I want to chuck ’em in a couple over there, anyhow, for luck. But I owe $30 feed bill to the Maryland outlaw people, and I can’t get my plugs away from there until the thirty’s paid. Now, you people are sports, and so’m I. What I want to know is, will you people cough up the thirty for me as a loan, so’s I can get that pair o’ mine down here?’
"The bookies listened to the man with gradually increasing smiles, and when he finished they gave him the laugh in chorus.
"’Stop your kidding,’ said one of them. ’I can get all the outlaw racehorses I want for $2 a head.’
"They all chipped in with a crack at the doleful-looking sport, who appeared to be rather a guileless sort of chap for a man with a short stable of racers.
"’They’re a good pair, all right, and one of ’em’s on edge, too,’ he persisted. ’He worked six furlongs in 1:21 flat a couple of days ago.’
"The bookies all looked at the man as if he were demented.
"’One twenty-one flat for a six-furlong route!’ exclaimed one of them. ’Why, look here, my friend, you’re not smoking hard enough to suppose you can win down here with a skate that does well when he works six furlongs in that time, are you? Don’t you know that there’s a whole bunch over there now that can go that route in 1:16 or better?’
"’Well, they’ve got a chance, anyhow,’ said the shabby man. ’Do I get the $30 to get ’em out o’ hock?’
"The bookies all turned their faces the other way, then, and when the man with the pair of hocked nags saw that it wasn’t any use he dug his hands into his pockets disconsolately and shambled out.
"On the day that the meeting opened I saw the shabby man in the betting ring. I was behind him when he handed one of the bookies a $5 bet on one of the horses entered in the second race of the day. The bookmaker had belonged to the party that gave the laugh to the shabby man when he asked for the $30.