over at Crowfield today. Of course, as a member of the Guernsey League, my father was in on it. He was sure that the plan Bennett arranged with Cullen and McMillan wouldn't work… he said he knew you since you were a boy and you wouldn't turn loose. My sister Nancy got the idea of coming here to try to persuade you, and I agreed to come along. On the way we met Bennett and Darth and Cullen going back, and they told us what had happened. I came on anyhow, though it didn't look like there was much chance of talking you out of it. Now I'd like to make a bet with you. Do you ever do any betting?'
'I'm not a gambler.' Pratt chuckled. 'I'm not exactly a confirmed gambler, but I don't mind an occasional friendly wager. I won a nice chunk on the 1936 election.'
'Would you care to try a little bet with me? Say $10,000?'
'On what?'
They got interrupted. A voice sounded, 'Oh, there you are,' and Monte McMillan was coming across the terrace. He sounded a little relieved. He approached Pratt: 'They were fooling around the fence on the other side, and I told them they might as well go on, and I wasn't sure where they got to. Not that I would suspect the Osgood youngsters of stealing a bull…'
Pratt grunted. 'Sit down and have a drink. Bert! Bert!' He turned to Clyde: 'What is it you want to bet about, my boy?'
Clyde leaned forward at him. 'I'll bet you $10,000 you don't barbecue Hickory Caesar Grindon.'
His sister Nancy exclaimed, 'Clyde!' Wolfe's eyes went half shut. The others made sounds, and even Lily Rowan showed some interest. McMillan, who had started to sit down, stopped himself at an angle and held it a second, and then slowly sank.
Pratt asked quietly, 'What's going to stop me?'
Clyde turned the palms of his hands up. 'It's either a bet or it isn't. That's all.'
'$10,000 even that we don't barbecue Hickory Caesar Grindon.'
'Right.'
'Within what time?'
'Say this week.'
'I ought to warn you I've consulted a lawyer. There's no legal way of stopping it, if I own him, no matter how much of a champion he is.'
Clyde merely shrugged. The look on his face was one I've often seen in a poker game.
'Well.' Pratt leaned back and got his thumbs in his arm- pits. 'This is mighty interesting. What about it, McMillan? Can they get that bull out of that pasture in spite of us?'
The stockman muttered, 'I don't know who would be do- ing it. If there's any funny business… if we had him in a barn…'
'I haven't got a barn.' Pratt eyed Clyde. 'One thing. What do we do, put up now? Checks?'
Clyde flushed. 'My check would be rubber. You know that, damn it. If I lose I'll pay.'
'You're proposing a gentleman's bet? With me?'
'All right, call it that. A gentleman's bet.'
'By Cod. My boy, I'm flattered. I really am. But I can't afford to do much flattering when $10,000 is involved. I'm afraid I couldn't bet unless I had some sort of inkling of where you would get hold of that. amount.'
Clyde got halfway out of his chair, and my feet came back automatically for a spring, but his sister pulled him back. She tried to pull him away, too, with urgent remarks about leaving, but he shook himself loose and even gave her a shove. He glared at Pratt with his jaw clamped:
'You damn trash, you say that to an Osgood! All right, I'll take some of your money, since that's all there is to you! If my father phones you to guarantee my side, does that make it a gentleman's bet?'
'Then you really do want to bet.'
'I do.'
'$10,000 even on the proposition as these people here have heard it.'
'I do.'
'All right. If your father guarantees it, it's a bet.'
Clyde turned and started off without even a glance around for good-bye. His friend Bronson put down his drink and fol- lowed him. They had to wait at the edge of the terrace for Nancy, who, flustered as she was, managed a dam good exit under the circumstances. As she got away Monte McMillan stood up and remarked to Pratt:
'I've known that Osgood boy since he was a baby. I guess I'd better go and tell him not to do anything foolish.'
He tramped off after them.
Lily Rowan said hopefully, 'It sounds to me as if there's going to be dirty work at the crossroads.' She patted the space beside her which Jimmy Pratt had vacated. 'Come and sit here, Escamillo, and tell me what's going to happen.'
I lifted the form, strolled gracefully over, deposited it, acquired her left hand, and studied the palm. 'It's like this,' I told her. 'You will be very happy for a while, then you will take a long journey under water and will
