AND OTHEB SKETCHES 123 



trained to the hour, and was to be delivered cherry ripe 

 at the post. The local pool rooms never gave more than 

 4 to 1 and at this price they were peppered so vigorously 

 that they soon cut to 2 to 1 and finally 8 to 5, and even at 

 these shrunken odds quite a pile of money was bet. When 

 "they're off" sounded through the room there was a 

 stillness almost solemn in its intensity. It was so dense 

 for a few seconds that one felt he could cut it into pieces, 

 and when the caller-off said: "Percita first, Merry Day 

 second," the wise men were shaking hands with them- 

 selves, and when the next call came that Merry Day was 

 second in the stretch, only a neck behind the leader, 

 there was an audible chuckle all over the room, which sud- 

 denly changed to a sort of frozen smile on the face when 

 the words rang out from the operator : * ' Command wins 

 by a head. Merry Day second." Another sure thing gone 

 wrong. 



