He awoke late next afternoon with a happy hangover — the cause of which he could not determine until young John’s voice seemed to spring into his ears, repeating: ‘Fifty sovereigns a month, with just one condition — that it be withdrawn¹ in case of war, when all revenues of our state will revert² to the British Empire.’

With a cry Pat sprang to the door. No Los Angeles Times lay against it, no Examiner — only Toddy’s Daily Form Sheet. He searched the orange pages frantically³. Below the form sheets, the past performances, the endless oracles⁴ for endless racetracks, his eye was caught by a one-inch item:

LONDON. SEPTEMBER 3RD. ON THIS MORNING’S DECLARATION BY CHAMBERLAIN, DOUGIE CABLES ‘ENGLAND TO WIN. FRANCE TO PLACE. RUSSIA TO SHOW’.

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