"It's brains that wins horse races,-brains and gameness. And, weight for sex, I generally prefer to back a filly. They may be flighty, but they're seldom yellow."-From the paddock philosophy of J. Bender, jockey. CHAPTER I BUILDING A THEORY BUT brave and bold as had been my words and confident my spirit in that moment of exaltation, later, when the inevitable reaction came, and I looked my ugly situation squarely in the face, the coward doubts and fears would rear their heads, for all that I could do to beat them down. It may be deemed surprising that I did not seek Duncan's aid to a greater extent in my predicament, or even confide to him the discovery I had made in regard to the significant newspaper personals; but it must be remembered that I was possessed of a sort of stubborn, self-reliant pride, probably engendered within me by my life of independence. Chiefly of my own folly was it that I had become involved in this mesh of misfortune; and I had consequently a certain ambition to extricate myself unaided and through my own efforts. Nor, despite my present tremors, did I enter tain any real misgivings as to my ability ultimately to do so, provided I were allowed sufficient time to carry out the plan of campaign I had formulated. But, alas, in that proviso lay a very disturbing rub. And, by the way, what a jangled, topsy-turvy world this would become, if each of us had it in his power to regulate the clocks according to his own liking. To one person the hours drag along on leaden foot, and it seems as though the longedfor morrow would never come; while to another the minutes go fairly whizzing past, and the vesper bell sounds upon a task scarcely yet commenced. "Time! Time!" was now the frenzied prayer of my soul, as I paced restlessly up and down my chamber that night after the Captain left. Give me but time, and with the clues in my hand I could easily loose myself from the Laocöon-like coils with which Fate was endeavouring to throttle me. Free to work out the hypothesis I had conceived, to trace those cipher personals back to their author, I had no doubt of eventually solving the entire mystery of the robbery, nor of demonstrating Baggerly's guilty responsibility. But in the meantime, by a sort of mocking per |