"’Hello, Bill,’ said I to him, ’what’s up?’
"’I didn’t hunt you up to touch you, boss,’ he said. ’I got a good thing I want to give to you. You’ve been square to me. The good thing’s to come off to-morrow, and nobody’s on. I’m preaching on it because I’ve been dropped from the track just for getting a skate on, and because I want to put you next, that’s been on the level with me.’
"’You can pass me up,’ I told the man. ’I don’t play the sure ones, you know.’
"’But this is ripe, and it’s going to happen,’ persisted the man. ’It’s a baby. It’s a looloo. It’s a cachuca. It’s that filly Mazie V. in the two-year-old race to-morrow. You know who’s stable she belongs in. I heard the chaw about it this afternoon before I got fired, and they didn’t get on to it that I was listening. Mazie V.’s going to walk in to-morrow. No dope, but she’s fit. She worked three-quarters in .15 flat early yesterday morning when nobody was looking, and she’s on edge. They’re going to burn up the books with it. I know that nobody can tout you, and I’m not trying to tout you. But here’s a chance, and I came down to let you know.’
"Well, of course I had to thank the man, but I couldn’t help but grin at him at that.
"’How long have you been rubbing ’em down?’ I asked him.
"’I’ve been around the horses since I was ten years old,’ he replied.
"’And still so easy?’ I couldn’t help but say. ’Well, I won’t say anything of what you’ve told me so as to queer the price, if there’s any play on Mazie V., but, of course, as for myself, I pass it up; thanks all the same to you. Need any money?’
"No, he didn’t want any money, he said. He had simply hunted me up to put me on to one of the best things of the meeting, and he shambled off.
"When the books opened for that two-year-old race the next day, Mazie V., a clean-limbed filly that had never shown a particle of class, opened up the rank outsider in a big field, which included some very fairish two-year-olds. I looked the books over, not because I was betting, but just out of habit, and I saw that every nag in the race was being played but Mazie V., the 150 to 1 shot.
"’If they’re going to burn the bookies out on Mazie V., I thought, amusedly, ’it’s a wonder the stable connections don’t take some of this good 150 to 1.’