Produced by Dagny; John Bickers
GARRISON'S FINISH, A ROMANCE OF THE RACE-COURSE
by W. B. M. Ferguson
CHAPTER I.
A SHATTERED IDOL.
As he made his way out of the paddock Garrison carefully tilted his bag of Durham into the curved rice-paper held between nicotine-stained finger and thumb, then deftly rolled his "smoke" with the thumb and forefinger, while tying the bag with practised right hand and even white teeth. Once his reputation had been as spotless as those teeth.
He smiled cynically as he shouldered his way through the slowly moving crowd--that kaleidoscope of the humanities which congregate but do not blend; which coagulate wherever the trial of science, speed, and stamina serves as an excuse for putting fortune to the test.
It was a cynical crowd, a quiet crowd, a sullen crowd. Those who had won, through sheer luck, bottled their joy until they could give it vent in a safer atmosphere--one not so resentful. For it had been a hard day for the field. The favorite beaten in the stretch, choked off, outside the money----
Garrison gasped as the rushing simulacra of the Carter Handicap surged to his beating brain; that brain at bursting pressure. It had recorded so many things--recorded faithfully so many, many things he would give anything to forget.
He was choking, smothering--smothering with shame, hopelessness, despair. He must get away; get away to breathe, to think; get away out of it all; get away anywhere--oblivion.
To the jibes, the sneers flung at him, the innuendos, the open insults, and worst of all, the sad looks of those few friends who gave their friendship without conditions, he was not indifferent, though he seemed so. God knows how he felt it at all. And all the more so because he had once been so high. Now his fall was so low, so pitifully low; so contemptible, so complete.
He knew what the action of the Jockey Club would be. The stewards would do only one thing. His license would be revoked. To-day had seen his finish. This, the ten-thousand dollar Carter Handicap, had seen his final slump to the bottom of the scale. Worse. It had seen him a pauper, ostracized; an unclean thing in the mouth of friend and foe alike. The sporting world was through with him at last. And when the sporting world is through--
Again Garrison laughed harshly, puffing at his cigarette, dragging its fumes into his lungs in a fierce desire to finish his physical cataclysm with his moral. Yes, it had been his last chance. He, the popular idol, had been going lower and lower in the scale, but the sporting world had been loyal, as it always is to "class." He had been "class," and they had stuck to him.
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: Garrison's Finish : a romance of the race course
- 2: Waterbury shot out his big fist
- 3: Drake sullenly resumed his coat
- 4: Because yeh choked Sis off in th' stretch
- 5: Because Dan Crimmins has a heart
- 6: The filly nuzzled at his shoulder
- 7: Flashed the trainer with a sneer
- 8: And Garrison resented the arrival of Billy
- 9: That pittance had once been a fortune to him
- 10: Emerging like specters from the blue haze of the smoker
- 11: Meanwhile Garrison had silently walked into the smoker
- 12: Favorite for the Carter Handicap Poisoned
- 13: He was not the discarded jockey
- 14: Waterbury may be here any minute
- 15: His opinion of Crimmins had undergone a complete revolution
- 16: Inside Information splayed out his legs
- 17: Crumpled in a heap on the sidewalk
- 18: Almost the first person he met was Jimmy Drake
- 19: Then honesty and dishonesty cease to be concrete realities
- 20: Snark centering all his faculties on his teeth
- 21: This nephew's name is Dagget William C
- 22: As Snark had acutely pointed out
- 23: Snark gravely tilted the black bottle ceilingward
- 24: Judged to be a two year old filly
- 25: For the Calvert and Desha estates joined
- 26: And yet he stayed at Calvert House
- 27: I think rickety is just the word
- 28: It was Garrison who was confused
- 29: You would elope with the man you love
- 30: Isn't it always the unnecessary one
- 31: She was a woman whom a sunshade completed
- 32: Calvert was nervously prodding the gravel with her sunshade
- 33: By Sysonby out of Hamburg Belle
- 34: Ejaculated the veracious Crimmins
- 35: The next moment the gelding had ranged up alongside
- 36: Are interwoven for a time with others
- 37: Calvert said he had disappeared
- 38: And yet they say the real Billy Garrison has disappeared
- 39: I fancy Colonel Desha is the one to give you his merits
- 40: Calvert House is open night and day
- 41: But with Waterbury it was a different proposition
- 42: Sue Desha was in the same restless condition
- 43: For reasons he knew and Waterbury knew
- 44: Waterbury held the mortgage of the Desha home
- 45: Waterbury for the next few days
- 46: But Crimmins very seldom lost his temper
- 47: He proved a valuable adjunct to Crimmins
- 48: He had stood friend to Colonel Desha
- 49: I thought it was due to a little tiff
- 50: And was about to pass when Crimmins barred his way
- 51: Crimmins judicially cleared his throat
- 52: Crimmins knew of old what that mouth portended
- 53: Crimmins was breathing heavily
- 54: Waterbury and Sue rode in silence
- 55: And the gelding answered impressively
- 56: Garrison kissed her again and again
- 57: Clenching his hands above his head in silent agony
- 58: Then Sue drew a great breath and commenced to shiver
- 59: Crimmins had said he had always hated him
- 60: He had chanced to pass Garrison's cot
- 61: And the practical assistance of Jimmie Drake
- 62: That it was proven that Crimmins poisoned Sis
- 63: But Crimmins and Waterbury had a scrap
- 64: Drake scratched his grizzled head elaborately
- 65: You can't change that into Dagget
- 66: Waterbury eyed her long and gravely
- 67: It had been weakness with Garrison
- 68: There were good horses entered against The Rogue
- 69: You've raised a muss pile down South in Cottonton
- 70: But it knocked Cottonton flatter than stale beer
- 71: You're not going to ride Speedaway
- 72: You can't mean you've scratched Speedaway
- 73: Why had Drake scratched Speedaway
- 74: And if Drake had transferred him to Desha
- 75: Had very kindly offered the services of his jockey
- 76: In the blue and gold of the Desha stable
- 77: He glanced up there was Cottonton
- 78: Why was McGloin pressing so hard
- 79: That meeting with Cottonton loomed up in all its greatness