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The Man Who Could Not Lose
by
“I did,” stammered Carter, in extreme agitation. ” I bet four hundred. I got five to one, Dolly,” he gasped, in awe; “we’ve won two thousand dollars.”
Dolly exclaimed rapturously: “We’ll put it all in bank,” she cried.
“We’ll put it all on Glowworm!” said her husband.
“Champ!” begged Dolly. “Don’t push your luck. Stop while—-” Carter shook his head.
“It’s NOT luck!” he growled. “It’s a gift, it’s second sight, it’s prophecy. I’ve been a full-fledged clairvoyant all my life, and didn’t know it. Anyway, I’m a sport, and after two of my dreams breaking right, I’ve got to back the third one!”
Glowworm was at ten to one, and at those odds the book-makers to whom he first applied did not care to take so large a sum as he offered. Carter found a book-maker named “Sol” Burbank who, at those odds, accepted his two thousand.
When Carter returned to collect his twenty-two thousand, there was some little delay while Burbank borrowed a portion of it. He looked at Carter curiously and none too genially.
“Wasn’t it you,” he asked, “that had that thirty-to-one shot yesterday on Dromedary?” Carter nodded somewhat guiltily. A man in the crowd volunteered: “And he had Her Highness in the second, too, for four hundred.”
“You’ve made a good day,” said Burbank. “Give me a chance to get my money back to-morrow.
“I’m sorry,” said Carter. “I’m leaving New York to-morrow.”
The same scarlet car bore them back triumphant to the bank.
“Twenty-two thousand dollars?” gasped Carter, “in CASH! How in the name of all that’s honest can we celebrate winning twenty-two thousand dollars? We can’t eat more than one dinner; we can’t drink more than two quarts of champagne–not without serious results.”
“I’ll tell you what we can do!” cried Dolly excitedly. “We can sail to-morrow on the CAMPANIA!”
“Hurrah!” shouted Carter. “We’ll have a second honey-moon. We’ll shoot up London and Paris. We’ll tear slices out of the map of Europe. You’ll ride in one motor-car, I’ll ride in another, we’ll have a maid and a valet in a third, and we’ll race each other all the way to Monte Carlo. And, there, I’ll dream of the winning numbers, and we’ll break the bank. When does the CAMPANIA sail?”
“At noon,” said Dolly.
“At eight we will be on board,” said Carter.
But that night in his dreams he saw King Pepper, Confederate, and Red Wing each win a race. And in the morning neither the engines of the CAMPANIA nor the entreaties of Dolly could keep him from the race-track.
“I want only six thousand,” he protested. “You can do what you like with the rest, but I am going to bet six thousand on the first one of those three to start. If he loses, I give you my word I’ll not bet another cent, and we’ll sail on Saturday. If he wins Out, I’ll put all I make on the two others.”
“Can’t you see,” begged Dolly, “that your dreams are just a rehash of what you think during the day? You have been playing in wonderful luck, that’s all. Each of those horses is likely to win his race. When he does you will have more faith than ever in your silly dreams—-“
“My silly dreams,” said Carter grinning, “are carrying you to Europe, first class, by the next steamer.”
They had been talking while on their way to the bank. When Dolly saw she could not alter his purpose, she made him place the nineteen thousand that remained, after he had taken out the six thousand, in her name. She then drew out the entire amount.
“You told me,” said Dolly, smiling anxiously, I could do what I liked with it. Maybe I have dreams also. Maybe I mean to back them.”
She drove away, mysteriously refusing to tell him what she intended to do. When they met at luncheon, she was still much excited, still bristling with a concealed secret.
“Did you back your dream?” asked Carter.
Dolly nodded happily.