Garrisons Finish | Page 3

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Etext prepared by Dagny, [email protected] and John Bickers,
[email protected]

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