AND OTHER SKETCHES 229 



The easy manner in which the Yankee had won the 

 third heat, coupled with that flash of speed in the first 

 quarter of it, was an eye-opener to the backers of the 

 Montrealer, and some of them commenced to think that 

 the whole game from the start had been an easy one for 

 the stranger. 



That night at the Albion the select circle of resident 

 horsemen was informed by Mr. Decker that he had an 

 interesting dispatch he was anxious to read to them. He 

 had heard it rumored that the peddler intended going 

 from Montreal to Newport in Vermont, and having an 

 intimate friend in the hotel business down there he had 

 wired him to look out for the peddler and post the boys 

 to make no match against his black horse. To this his 

 friend had wired the following reply, which he would 

 read to them: 



"L. W. Decker, Albion Hotel, Montreal. 



** Warning comes too late. That slick peddler 



broke all the boys here a month ago. We gave 



him Horace Greely's advice to go west and try 



Montreal. Guess he has done it." 



