THE chinaman's contribution. 89 



and he broke away with the remark, "Charlie Sing 

 says Del Monte will win." 



'The Chinaman," said I. You could have knocked 

 me over with a feather. 



"Nothing- else," said Ragan. 



Then I thought he was off his head. If there had 

 been a station on the grounds I would have talked it 

 over with the captain. Finally, screwing my courage 

 up to the sticking point, I walked over to him and 

 putting my hand on his shoulder said, as I looked 

 him in the eye : "Ragan, are you going to put down 

 your good money on Del Monte?" I must have 

 looked serious as he burst out laughing When 

 he had it out and gave me time to get back to 

 earth he said, "No, I am going to bet it for the China- 

 man." As he said this I felt relieved, as it now looked 

 as though he had been joshing me. But I soon found 

 my mistake, as in a couple of minutes Ragan produced 

 a roll of fourteen fifties. He counted them with the 

 sang froid of a faro dealer and followed up the good 

 work with the remark that it was Charlie Sing's con- 

 tribution to the betting ring at this meeting. My 

 eyes stuck out so far that I believe you could have 

 knocked them off with a stick. Ragan noticed it and 



laughed, as he said " Charlie is the first and only 

 Chinaman that ever could be found guilty of betting 

 $700 on a horse race, and that he would put every 

 penny of it down if the game hung out long enough." 

 As Ragan slipped the roll into his inside vest pocket 

 I asked him to strip a leaf off of it so that I could buy 

 a ticket on Richardson. I told him that I had not 

 been rubbing a winner, and while the owner paid for 

 the food and freight, I was in need of a little sure 



