96 LIFE WITH THE TROTTERS. 



look at it, turned to Daniels and said : " My pretty boy from 

 San Francisco, yon have had a shade the best of me. I have 

 been betting you did not have one horse in your outfit that 

 could trot in 2:17. Judging from the way these two acted, 

 I don't doubt now that you have a whole barn-yard full 

 that can go that well." As Andy had won the money and 

 was in a happy frame of mind, he could afford to be pleasant 

 with the countryman. 



As Mr. Conklin and myself were visiting a friend that 

 evening, I told him I was sure that Rarus could beat the 

 Maid a good deal oftener than she could him — in fact, that 

 I did not think, from the present aspect of affairs, that she 

 could beat him at all. We then came back to San Francisco, 

 where we had other engagements, and there occurred a race 

 which has already been criticised by the press, public, and 

 pool-buyers, from every possible standpoint, and I have 

 been accused in connection with it, of everything in the 

 world excepting murder in the first degree, and, like the 

 gentleman in the story who devoted most of his last will 

 and testament to a vindication of a charge that had been 

 made against him, I want to state my side of this race 

 before I die, and while some of the other people that were 

 connected with it are still on earth. Mr. Doble had often- 

 times, when I had been otherwise engaged, driven my 

 horses in their work for me, and I had done the same for- 

 him. Perhaps ten or fifteen different times through the 

 winter, I had driven Goldsmith Maid under his directions in 

 ' his absence. After our return to San Francisco, our first 

 plans were to go East immediately. With this idea in view, 

 we commenced preparing the horses for the trip. One 

 morning when I was going to the track, Mr. Doble asked 

 me if I would not work Goldsmith Maid a couple of miles- 

 at a certain pace, and gave me an order on " Old Charlie," 

 who rubbed the mare, to that effect. I worked her exactly 

 as Mt. Doble directed. If I remember right, he told me ta 

 drive her two miles in about 2:25. I recall perfectly that I 

 drove her within three-fourths of a second of what he told 



