Polytechnic High School - Caerulea Yearbook (Long Beach, CA)

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CABR,ULEA'Z5 he considered the excellent joke of Joe and the Ace of Spades coming back. But Bennet began to take the joke more se1'iously when he received a letter the next 1no1'ning addressed in Joe's cramped but legible hand. The letter read: lNIy dear lNIr. Bennet-- A Will you please grant me a three weeks, leave of absence or else I can quit for good if you desire it. I ani going to enter Ace of Spades in Grand Sweepstakes. I do 11ot want to do that and have management of your entries also. lNIy assistant Thoren is an excellent man with horses. Respectfully yours, J. Wo1'ral 4'And only two weeks to the Grand Sweepstakes, and Joe about the only man who can carry my colors to a winf' muttered Bennet after reading the note. But I canlt refuse hi1n,', he said aloud, he has done too much good work for me. Besides it will prove to hiin the impossibility of a comeback for either the Ace of Spades as a racing horse or Joe VVorral as a jockey. Yet Bennet admired Joe's attempt at a return to active participation on the track. He dis- patched a 11ote to Wo1'1'al who was overjoyed at its message. J oe: You are hereby given three weeks' vacation. Good luck to you. If you need any cash say so. lNIonth's advance salary is enclosed. - Your friend, Charles Bennet That advance in salary looked good to J oe. It afforded him the wherewithal to reach Albany and the CI1t1'y fee for the Grand Sweep- stakes there. His own savings would support him and his horse until he returned to his old job, and also leave him a couple of hundred to put on the Ace of Spades. Fourteen

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bv aonmzzr is- cn Anz on the best of terms, as shown by the familiar address of Charley which VVorral employed towards his boss. That morning Bennet had called J oe into his library to give hi111 instructions concerning the coming Grand Sweepstakes. As usual after Joe had received his orders the two 111en began a conversation on the racing game in general and finally ended up at their favorite topic of whether a horse could come back after a mnnber of years off the track. Bennet generally won the argument and J oe went into a deeply thoughtful mood, but this morning Joe was thinking more deeply than had been his habit. In his mind he reviewed all his past life and experience on the track, how worry had 111ade l1i1n old before his time, how Bert Foot had died from over effort, and how he and the Ace of Spades had quit the turf together, and how they had both kept in good physical condition through their time of inaction. Suddenly VVorral came out of his reverie and jumped up so violently as to startle Bennet out of his reading. I have it, Charley. A real thoroughbred can come back. Illl prove it to you. The Ace of Spades is coming back. The Ace is too old, Joe. And besides who will ride for you?,, asked Charley in a manner which showed that he thoughtnhis stable manager was joking. ' ' UNO, Charley, I mean it. The Ace is old, fourteen years, but he has a young heartf' uVVho will ride for you ?'l Bennet repeated his question. ' '4Nobody,ll ride for mef' snapped back Joe, angry at Bennetas rather bantering tone. 'Tll ride for myself. No one'll want to ride the Ace, because they think he's too old and broken to have a chance. But I'm not too old to ride 'im again myself. VVe'll show 'em all. Old Ace of Spades can come back and so can Old Joe VVorral. 'fDon't you laugh, Charley, I mean it. We'll show you. Don't you worry,', and Joe angrily stalked out of the presence of his employer, who immediately went into a spasm of laughter over his friendls defiant attitude. All day Charley Bennet smiled over what Thirteen ...MH

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CABRULBA' I5 I ought to get good odds, he thought. But it wasn't the money that he cared about. All he wanted was to show the world that the Ace of Spades could return triumphant to the racing game. Any betting that he would do would be from habit and from the superstition that an honest man should always put down a bet on his own horse. . By the next morning Joe had found quarters for himself and his stallion in the city of' Albany and had officially entered Ace of Spades in the Grand Sweepstakes. The same evening he started the former champion upon two weeks of intensive t1'aining. The Ace was one of the finest horses that had ever graced the American turf, and ten years off the track had not lessened the appearance of' a tho1'oughbred. Joe had been a kindly master but he had kept the Ace always in condition by short trots on the private Bennet track. Joe loved his horse as much as it is possible for a man to love an animal, and there is no question about it that his horse displayed a dog-like affection for Joe. Black as the ace of spades and almost a hand higher than the average race horse, VVorral's a11in1al would be given a high place by any judge of horse-flesh. Every morning Joe rode the Ace slowly around one of the private tracks which were open to him. Then he would put the horse up to his full speed for short di.stances, hardly ever going more than a third of the way around at top speed. The Ace warmed up to the work and Joe had difiiculty in checking the horse only part way around the race track. He believed that it would be best to conserve the animalis energy for the mile-and-a-quarter Sweepstake event. New fire and go seemed to flow in the veins of the former champion. He realized that he would run again against a great field. To Joe, who seemed to have a language with which he conversed with his horse, the old King of the Turf apparently said, VVe,re coming back. We're going to make good. VVe're going to winf' Joe was elated over the prospects, but he tried to keep his identity and place of training secret, for he did not wish that pest and despoiler of' the 1'acing game, the race track tout, to see what his horse could Fifteen