Page:Pacific Monthly volumes 9 and 10.djvu/138



Roodooed:

H Story of the Racc-^rack

By Lou Rodman Ceeple

"Some women are made to soothe care's frown, To make e'en sorrow sweet; And some are made to dra^ men down, — To tempt and trick and cheat"

6D HELVER was bellowin' out that old ballad, as he brushed and rubbed La Costa's glossy coat. He had a pair of lungs like a buffalo, an' 1 see Tex Bard well stop scrapin' Palmetto's hoofs, an' scowl as he list- ened to the singin'. I knew why, just as well as I knew why his sister Flos- sie was listenin' to that voice, while the pink deeperied in her cheek and a happy smile curved her pretty little mouth. I was their swipe, when Bard- well and Helver were partners. They wasn't any honester than the average horseman, but even Tex, who knew and practiced all the tricks allowable on the turf, couldn't stand Helver's crookedness. So they dissolved part- nership ; and though Ed got La Costa, thet^est horse in the lot, he always had it in for Tex for refusin' to stay in business with him.

They didn't look any more alike than they acted. Ed was a big, broad- shouldered, curly-headed, handsome, devil-may-care sort of fellow, with a loud, jolly way with every one he met ; while Bardwell was tall and thin as a fork, wore his hat low over his eyes, and never talked louder than if he was in a sick-room. He was very close- mouthed, and all we knew was that though not a Texan by birth, he had lived there long enough to get Texas manners, speech, and "Tex" for a nickname. His young sister had taken a fancy to come and keep his "stable kitchen" at the track; though except for an occasional visit she had hardly

seen him since she was a child. They seemed happy enough together, how- ever, 'till Helver saw her. She was one of those soft, sweet, "Somebody-love- me" sort of girls. And Helver was the sort of man women mostly go daft over; and he always enjoyed doing anything that tormented someone else, anyway. So when he see how bent Tex was on keeping the girl away from him, he made it his whole busi- ness to send her notes an' flowers, an' talk to her every chance he got. She was of age, and all Tex could do was to warn her against the man he knew to be a bad one. But when did a broth- er's word carry farther than a lover's?

When they came to tell Tex they was engaged, some memory brought the tears to his eyes, an' says he: "Ed, be true to her; though the best I can wish her is that you desert her before you marry her." 'Twas an unfriendly sort of a speech ; but Tex knew his man.

Still, things went on smoothly enough, and when Helver's La Costa beat Tex's Palmetto in two races, the girl condoled with her brother and congratulated her lover with such evi- dent sincerity that both men laughed. She was only a child in the ways of the world ; and she was as merry and friendly with me, an old swipe, as though I'd been a king. She came dancing out where I was sweepin' the stalls (I worked for Tex then), an' savs she:

"Oh, Trad, my cousin Nile has writ- ten me that she^g.^^^(^pj^y^(5'(5e never