362 CHAMP. 



In a cloud of dust red against the sky, onward 

 sped the flying feet. With difficulty the excited 

 crowd was kept from the track, the unerring watches 

 swiftly marking the seconds as they flew. "Two- 

 ten." Two-fifteen without a skip." "Two-seven- 

 teen, " and the horse touched the shadow of the line 

 and was gone like an arrow. A wild roar of applause 

 swept from the assembled thousands and rolled away 

 in silence as the crowd, leaping all barriers, rushed up 

 to the stand to hear the official decision. "Two- 

 seventeen and a quarter." Again and again the 

 cheers went up, "Dexter," "Doble," "Fawcett," "The 

 Buffalo Park," in fact, everything and everybody 

 came in for a share of the wild enthusiasm which 

 would not be repressed. 



The pleasant gentleman whom nobody knew was 

 by this time safe in the press-stand, when Mayor 

 Wells turned to the audience, and looking down upon 

 the sea of up-turned faces, said : 



"Gentlemen : I am pleased to announce to you 

 that the magnificent animal whose triumph you have 

 just witnessed has been purchased by Robert Bonner, 

 of New York. He will trot once more here and once 

 in Chicago, and will then pass into the finest private 

 stable in the world." 



Words fail to convey any idea of the scene that 

 followed. There was something that seemed to 

 strike the popular fancy in this last crowning stroke 

 of the man whom the moment before very few knew, 

 but whom thousands recognized as if by intuition 

 when his name was spoken. Amid a perfect tornado 

 of applause the quiet looker-on stepped forward, in 

 answer to loud calls of "Bonner! Bonner!" and said: 



