242 TALES OF THE TURF. 



went by on the track, the swelling went out of her eyes 

 and her neck limbered up perceptibly. She was worth a 

 dozen dead horses yet. I did not tell Splan about the 

 trouble until time to hitch _up. He then went out and 

 warmed her up with a hood on, still urging me to 

 "hedge." But how? 



I called the syndicate together and said : "You may 

 all do as you see fit ; I'm going to hedge if I can." 



She won the heat (the sixth) by a close finish from 

 Jessie Ballard, and I immediately started my ambassador 

 for the "hedge row." Splan again urged me to do so, 

 saying she could not win another heat to save her life. 

 But she did win the seventh and the race from Globe, who 

 led her to within a few rods of the wire. 



My hedging ambassador had been busy, and when I 

 came to settle I found that he had played back all my 

 share of the winnings and $172 more. So I quit loser on 

 that race that amount, and always after that when I heard 

 of a "real sure thing" I thought of two of that kind, viz : 

 Kit Curry and John Bostick's "fo' heats in fo'teen to 

 eighteen ; win shuah," with Warrior. 



The old gentleman and his country brother-in-law 

 "stood pat" hedged off but little, while the poolman was 

 "smart" like myself. I always had a warm side for old 

 man Kyger after that, for he was game in all his troubles. 

 Splan remarked as he got out of the sulky the last heat : 

 "There she is with a record of 2:24^, marked for life; 

 she'll never lower it." He was mistaken, however, in re- 

 gard to that, and old man Kyger and his low-headed little 

 brown mare made plenty of trouble for the boys for years 

 after that event. But the $172 added to the price orig- 

 inally paid for "The Sandpiper's" gravel made it quite an 

 expensive commodity. And the Dutchman called around 



