Felix rushed back to the pool room.  As he entered the man at the tape was calling out that “they” were off.  In due course “they” reached the quarter and then the half.  A terrific struggle was in progress between Col.  Starbottle and Don Juan.  First one was ahead and then the other.  Finally they came thundering down to the stretch, Col.  Starbottle winning by a neck.  “Gates” won $90,000, and several others pocketed wads running anywhere from $20,000 to $60,000.

Felix hurried back to the telephone.  “Mac” was at the other end.

“Now write this down,” admonished McPherson; “we can’t afford to have any mistake.  Old Stone has just won the fourth race, with Calvert second.  Play Old Stone to win at 5 to 1.  We shall make $250,000—­and Old Stone is safe in the stable all the time and his jockey is smoking a cigarette on the club house veranda.  Good luck, old man.”

Felix had some difficulty in getting near the “trusted cashier” so many financiers were betting on Calvert.  Felix smiled to himself.  He’d show them a thing or two.

Finally he managed to push his envelope containing the five ten-thousand-dollar bills into the “trusted cashier’s” hand.  The latter marked it “Old Stone, 5 to 1 to win!” and thrust it into his pocket.  Then “Whitney” or somebody bet $70,000 on Calvert.

“They’re off!” shouted the man at the tape.

How he lived while they tore around the course Felix never knew.  Neck and neck Old Stone and Calvert passed the quarter, the half, and the three-quarter post, and with the crowd yelling like demons came hurtling down the stretch.

“Old Stone wins!” cried the “booster” at the tape in a voice husky with excitement.  “Calvert a close second!” Felix nearly fainted.  His head swam.  He had won a quarter of a million.  Then the voice of the “booster” made itself audible above the confusion.

“What!  A mistake?  Not possible!—­Yes.  Owing to some confusion at the finish, both jockies wearing the same colors, the official returns now read Calvert first; Old Stone second.”

Among the zitherns Felix sat and wondered if he had been schvindled.  He had not returned to Wassermann Brothers.  Had he done so he would have found it empty five minutes after he had lost his money.  The millionaires were already streaming hilariously into Sharkey’s.  “Gates” pledged “Belmont” and “Keene” pledged “Whitney.”  Each had earned five dollars by the sweat of his brow.  The glorious army of wire-tappers had won another victory and their generals had consummated a campaign of months.  Expenses (roughly), $600.  Receipts, $50,000.  Net profits, $48,400.  Share of each, $16,133.