Summary

The day of the Great State Post Stakes arrives. Ten Broeck believes Lexington’s “chief danger” (241) is a horse named Lecompte. Lexington wins both of the day’s heats. After the race, Mary Barr visits Jarret. She asks him to meet her in town the next day; there, she warns Jarret about the possibility of war and tells him that he “would be safe back in Kentucky” (251). Jarret resolves to stay with Lexington. Ten Broeck later summons him and, aware of the conversation between Jarret and Mary Barr, thanks him for “[expressing] some degree of loyalty to me” (253). Soon afterwards, to Jarret’s dismay, Ten Broeck agrees to race Lexington in a rematch against Lecompte. At the race, Lecompte beats Lexington after someone distracts Lexington’s jockey.

Many people suspect that Ten Broeck “had bet heavily against his own horse and had planted...