JP~J 
 
 JOHNA.SEAVERNS 
 
3 9090 014 560 482 
 
 k i ' 
 
 
 VMikca 
 
 
 CLARKE CO 
 
Gallops 
 
 Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine 
 
 Cummings Schooi of Veterinary Medicine at 
 
 Tufts University 
 
 200 Westboro Road 
 
 North Grafton, MA 01536 
 
f*K.b 
 
Gallops 
 
 by 
 
 David Gray 
 
 New York 
 
 The Century Co. 
 
 1898 
 
COS 
 
 Copyright, 1897, 1898, by 
 The Century Co. 
 
 The DeVinne Press. 
 
TO 
 ARTHUR BRISBANE 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. The Parish of St. Thomas Equinus . 1 
 II. Braybrooke's Double-Event Steeple- 
 chase 27 
 
 III. How the Fence-Breakers' League 
 
 was "Stumped" .... 47 
 
 IV. The Ride of his Life ... 67 
 V. The "Transfigured Pair" ... 83 
 
 VI. The Popularity of Tompkins . . 105 
 
 VII. Chalmers's Gold Piece .... 125 
 
 VIII. The Bishop's Missionary Meeting . 149 
 
 IX. His First Race 165 
 
 X. Carty Carteret's Sister . . . 197 
 
Gallops 
 
Gallops 
 
 THE PARISH OF ST. THOMAS EQUINUS 
 
 THE bishop settled himself in an arm- 
 chair, crossed his short legs, and gave 
 a sigh of relief and comfort. Through the 
 open window he could see the hills across 
 the valley and the two spires of Oakdale 
 village. There was a gleam of silver in 
 the bottom-lands where a bend of the river 
 revealed itself. Out of doors the air was 
 hot with the afternoon sun and murmurous 
 with insect noises, but the large drawing- 
 room was pleasantly darkened and cool. 
 The bishop felt that he had earned peace, 
 and meant to enjoy it. With half-closed 
 eyes he watched the tea-things brought in 
 and the two slender young women seat 
 
2 GALLOPS 
 
 themselves by the table. Mrs. Alden 
 Adams began to make the tea. 
 
 " Did you have a good time ? " she asked 
 the bishop. 
 
 "Yes," said the bishop; " I suppose so. 
 It was rather extraordinary, however. — 
 Two lumps and a little cream," he added. 
 
 "Extraordinary?" Mrs. Adams echoed 
 inquiringly as she passed the cup. 
 
 " I think I may say very extraordinary," 
 he replied in an injured tone. 
 
 Miss Colfax stopped in the middle of a 
 stitch — she was embroidering something. 
 
 " I suppose the rector bored you to 
 death," she said. " I hope you ordered 
 him to stop advising the farmers to put up 
 wire." 
 
 " Wire ? Wire what ? " asked the prel- 
 ate, as if he were hearing of a new heresy. 
 
 "Wire fences, of course," the girl re- 
 plied. "You can't jump wire." 
 
 The bishop seemed at a loss. " No," he 
 said ; " I suppose not. I don't want to. 
 But, my dear young woman, I have n't 
 seen the rector." 
 
 " Why," said Mrs. Adams, who was try- 
 
PARISH OF ST. THOMAS EQUINUS 3 
 
 ing to snuff the lamp under the kettle, " I 
 thought you and Willie had gone to the 
 rectory in the victoria." 
 
 "That 's what we were going to do," 
 the bishop answered, with a resentful note 
 in his voice ; " but we gave up the victoria 
 and your horses. The ones we did take 
 made other arrangements." 
 
 The girl looked up from her work. 
 "An accident?" she inquired. 
 
 The bishop hemmed. " I should hardly 
 call it an accident. An accident is some- 
 thing contrary to probabilities." Both 
 women looked puzzled. " My young 
 friend, Mr. William Colfax," he went on, 
 " informed me, as we were about to start, 
 that the horses harnessed to the victoria 
 were such ' rum skates' — pardon me, those 
 were his words — that he would prefer to 
 take me with some of his own." 
 
 " I am glad he was so thoughtful," ob- 
 served his sister ; " it is n't often that he 
 is." 
 
 The bishop scrutinized the girl. She was 
 earnestly embroidering. The corners of 
 his mouth twitched. 
 
4 GALLOPS 
 
 " It was thoughtful," he continued. 
 " He had a high red cart and a tandem. 
 Two grooms held the horse in front, and 
 there was another at the head of the 
 wheeler." 
 
 The girl dropped the work in her lap. 
 " I think Willie's manners are improving," 
 she said simply. " He has n't been so 
 civil to anybody stopping in the house 
 since he let Carty Carteret ride Man- 
 slaughter. He must like you." 
 
 " But I don't think," Mrs. Adams ob- 
 jected, " that a tandem is the proper thing 
 for a bishop to visit one of his rectors in 
 — not the first time, anyway." 
 
 " I may say," observed the bishop, " that 
 this thought occurred to me also." 
 
 "Oh, stuff, Kate!" the girl interposed. 
 "We 're not in town. You 're ruffled 
 because Willie said your victoria horses 
 were skates — and they are." 
 
 The bishop avoided a discussion of this 
 question. "It may be," he said, "but I 
 should have preferred them to the tandem. 
 William said that he believed his horses 
 were safe, or if they were not we should 
 
PARISH OF ST. THOMAS EQUINUS 5 
 
 find it out. Before I was quite in the cart 
 the front one pawed one of the men, and 
 they let go of him." 
 
 " What could you expect ? " said the girl. 
 " He 'd never been put to harness before." 
 
 " William mentioned that fact after we 
 had started," the bishop continued. " At 
 the Four Corners we met a steam thresh- 
 ing-machine, and the leader took the road 
 in the opposite direction from the village. 
 Then they both ran away." He paused to 
 allow his words to take effect. The bare 
 fact seemed to him impressive enough. 
 He reflected what a terrible picture the 
 newspapers might make of Bishop Cun- 
 ningham in a runaway, and he considered 
 how he could soften the information for 
 his wife. 
 
 " They must have taken the Hemlock 
 Hill road," Miss Colfax said thoughtfully. 
 "How far did they run?" 
 
 The prelate looked annoyed. " Really, 
 I can't say," he replied. " I don't know 
 the country, you know. At first your 
 brother thought we 'd stop for the groom 
 — we had lost him at the threshing-ma- 
 
6 GALLOPS 
 
 chine. But the horses pulled so that he 
 asked me if I did n't think we would better 
 let them go and enjoy it while it lasted." 
 He swallowed some tea, and glanced from 
 one to the other of the women. 
 
 " You could n't have been very far from 
 the Galloways'," Mrs. Adams suggested 
 uncertainly, as though she were expected 
 to say something. " We dine there to- 
 night, you know. Pretty road, is n't it?" 
 
 "Is it?" said the bishop, dryly. Both 
 women laughed. " I dare say, I dare 
 say," he went on; " but I was thinking of 
 something else than the scenery. We 
 stopped the horses at the foot of the hill, 
 and William said that if I did n't mind 
 putting off going to the rectory he would 
 go in and trade the leader to Mr. Gallo- 
 way. He said that it was no use bother- 
 ing with such a puller ; and I quite agreed 
 with him, though I wished he had come to 
 that conclusion sooner." 
 
 "Willie had promised to let me hunt 
 Albion," said the girl, regretfully. 
 
 " Never mind, dear," exclaimed her 
 aunt; "you can have Alden's Thunder. 
 
PARISH OF ST. THOMAS EQUINUS 7 
 
 I think he 's afraid to ride him himself. 
 But you missed seeing the rector," she 
 added, turning to the bishop ; " that was 
 too bad." 
 
 Miss Colfax laughed. " You did n't 
 miss much, and you did have a good 
 drive. Of course it was n't very long, 
 but while it lasted it must have been rare. 
 I 've never had a tandem run with me." 
 The prelate looked at her wonderingly. 
 " But," she continued, " I don't see how 
 Willie could have made much of a trade, 
 with Albion so wet and hot." 
 
 The bishop's eye lighted up. " Yes ; 
 that was rather extraordinary." 
 
 "Extraordinary?" his companions re- 
 peated together. 
 
 " How, extraordinary? " Eleanor asked. 
 " And you said you had an extraordi- 
 nary afternoon, too. I don't see anything 
 extraordinary about it." Sitting erect, 
 with her hands in her lap, and a shaft of 
 sunlight burnishing her hair, she was very 
 beautiful, and as the bishop looked upon 
 her his expression softened. 
 
 " My dear young lady," he explained, 
 
8 GALLOPS 
 
 "I am a stout, elderly person, and for 
 twenty years I have gone about in a 
 brougham drawn, I may say, by a confi- 
 dential horse. I have had to do only with 
 the things which are the duties of a city 
 clergyman. I have been a bishop but six 
 months, and this is my first introduction 
 to Oakdale, which my venerable prede- 
 cessor sometimes alluded to as the parish 
 of St. Thomas Equinus. Some things 
 about it seem a little new, you know — 
 yes, I may even say extraordinary." 
 
 The girl looked at him reprovingly, as 
 if she suspected him of joking. 
 
 " I suppose," said Mrs. Adams, " that 
 you are not much interested in hunting, 
 and all that. I know a man — Mr. Fair- 
 field, the architect — who feels just as you 
 do about it. He says this is the dullest 
 place he ever got into." 
 
 " I should n't call it dull," protested the 
 bishop. 
 
 "Well, I 'm glad of that," she replied 
 gratefully. " I should hate to have you 
 bored. I hate being bored myself." 
 
 Miss Colfax yawned as if at the mention 
 
PARISH OF ST. THOMAS EQUINUS 9 
 
 of the word, and put a slim and very white 
 hand to her mouth. " You have n't told 
 us yet what Willie got for Albion," she 
 said lazily. 
 
 " I am not quite certain whether I 
 know," the bishop replied. " It was 
 somewhat complicated." 
 
 " Why ? Was n't Charley Galloway at 
 home?" asked Mrs. Adams. 
 
 " Oh, yes. We met him in the drive, 
 and William asked him at once if he could 
 detect anything wrong in the leader's 
 wind. He said he had galloped him six 
 miles to find out. That was one of the 
 things which struck me as extraordinary." 
 
 " You did n't think Willie was so clever, 
 did you?" asked the girl. 
 
 "No; I did n't," said the bishop. 
 " There were several other interesting 
 occurrences, however, before the bargain 
 was concluded. Mr. Galloway offered us 
 refreshments, and then invited me out to 
 see his horses jump." 
 
 " Only his green ones, I suppose," said 
 the girl, with a shade of contempt — 
 "lunged in the runway." 
 
io GALLOPS 
 
 "Was that it? There was a kind of 
 lane with a high fence on both sides, and 
 barriers erected at intervals. The stable- 
 men shooed the horses over without any 
 one on them. Then, for my particular 
 benefit, Mr. Galloway ended by sending a 
 Jersey cow over. You know I am the 
 president of a Society for the Prevention 
 of Cruelty to Animals!" 
 
 "Really!" exclaimed Mrs. Adams, as 
 though she found it hard to believe. 
 
 " It 's odd the way he loves that cow," 
 observed Miss Colfax. " He says he '11 
 match her against any cow in America." 
 
 The bishop nervously gulped down his 
 tea, and set the cup on the table. " I 
 think," he said, " that, if you will allow 
 me, I must call Mr. Galloway a very ex- 
 traordinary young man." 
 
 Mrs. Adams laughed. " He must have 
 had that waistcoat on," she said mean- 
 ingly to her niece. 
 
 The ghost of a smile softened the bish- 
 op's mouth. " I think it likely," he said. 
 " It was red, yellow, and black." 
 
 " There 's blue in it, too," Miss Colfax 
 
PARISH OF ST. THOMAS EQUINUS n 
 
 added. " I made it myself. Kate is a 
 little envious because it 's more effective 
 than the one she made for Willie. But 
 please tell us how the trade came out." 
 
 " At first it seemed as though there 
 was n't going to be one. Mr. Galloway 
 was n't sure that he cared for a steeple- 
 chaser, or that he had anything to barter." 
 
 " Yes, of course ! " the girl exclaimed. 
 " It 's always that way. Go on, please." 
 
 " But finally he brought out a big sorrel 
 horse which he called Lorelei." 
 
 " Lorelei ? Lorelei ? " repeated Miss Col- 
 fax. " How was she bred ? " The bishop 
 sat up with a start. "Oh, never mind!" 
 she continued. " Probably you did n't 
 ask. What cut of horse was it?" 
 
 The bishop shut his lips tight, settled 
 himself again, and folded his hands. 
 
 " I mean," said the girl, " was it a har- 
 ness horse or a jumper? " 
 
 A mental conflict was going on inside 
 the prelate. Was it meet for a bishop of 
 the Church to submit to all this? But 
 the tea and the easy-chair and the girl's 
 gray eyes were mollifying his indignation, 
 
12 GALLOPS 
 
 and his sense of humor was reasserting 
 itself. 
 
 " A jumper, I think," he answered in a 
 resigned way. " Mr. Galloway said she 
 could jump an enormous height — ten feet, 
 if I remember correctly." The aunt and 
 niece exchanged glances. " He said he 
 had just got her from Long Island, and 
 did n't want to part with her, only she 
 was too slow to race, and he had plenty of 
 hunters." 
 
 " What did Willie think of her? " 
 
 " He asked me if it did n't look as 
 though her front legs had been fired — I 
 think it was fired." 
 
 " Probably had been," Mrs. Adams 
 interpolated. 
 
 " Well, Mr. Galloway was indignant 
 about it; and I said I should n't venture 
 any opinion — in fact, I said I had n't any, 
 which was the truth." 
 
 "How odd!" said Miss Colfax, looking 
 at him suspiciously. 
 
 " Not at all," her aunt objected. " Some- 
 times even a veterinary can't tell." 
 
 " They examined Albion after that," 
 
PARISH OF ST. THOMAS EQUINUS 13 
 
 continued the bishop. "William — very 
 honorably, I thought — admitted that he 
 pulled a little." There was a twinkle in 
 the prelatical eye. " But he expatiated 
 on his wind and his endurance, and recited 
 his pedigree." 
 
 "War-cry out of a Lapidist mare, sec- 
 ond dam by True Blue, third by Long- 
 fellow," the girl repeated. " It 's very 
 good, is n't it? " 
 
 The bishop looked appealingly at Mrs. 
 Adams. 
 
 "Yes; it 's capital," she said reassur- 
 ingly. 
 
 " Do you mind giving me a little more 
 tea?" inquired the bishop. "But," he 
 went on, " Mr. Galloway said that he 
 could n't think of exchanging on even 
 terms. He suggested that William should 
 throw in a dun-colored pony and some 
 kind of a cart." 
 
 "The pig!" exclaimed Miss Colfax. 
 
 The bishop laughed. " William seemed 
 to be of that opinion. He intimated that 
 if I wanted to convert a Jew I had the 
 opportunity. I thought it was wiser for me 
 
14 GALLOPS 
 
 to withdraw, so I went to see the Jersey- 
 cow." 
 
 "Well, how did they settle it?" asked 
 the girl. 
 
 " As far as I could understand, they 
 arranged a balance by extending the scope 
 of the negotiations. Your brother secured 
 Lorelei, a pair of cobs, — cobs, I believe, 
 — a brood mare, and some chickens." 
 
 " Charley's game Japs, of course," said 
 the girl, half to herself. The bishop 
 looked puzzled, but disregarded the inter- 
 ruption. 
 
 " Mr. Galloway got Albion," he ex- 
 plained, " another horse named Jupiter, 
 the cart, the dun-colored pony, a fox- 
 terrier, and a lady's bicycle. It was very 
 ridiculous ; don't you think so ? " 
 
 The women seemed not to hear the 
 question. They were considering the 
 terms of the trade. 
 
 " It was characteristic of Willie to trade 
 your bicycle," said Mrs. Adams to her 
 niece. 
 
 "I don't care," the girl replied; "I 
 
PARISH OF ST. THOMAS EQUINUS 15 
 
 never use it. Did he tell Charley about 
 Albion running away ? " 
 
 " Well," said the bishop, slowly, " as we 
 drove off he did tell him that the horse 
 pulled a good deal." 
 
 " And that was the second time he had 
 told him," said Mrs. Adams. 
 
 " Yes. And Mr. Galloway advised your 
 nephew to keep the mare's legs in bandages 
 for a few days. He explained that they 
 might be stiff after her journey on the 
 cars." 
 
 " I have my suspicions about those 
 legs," Miss Colfax remarked. " Charley 
 is a bit too keen for a gentleman." She 
 moved idly to the piano, and began to play. 
 The bishop watched her with growing 
 amazement. She played on, perhaps for 
 ten minutes. 
 
 "That was very beautiful — wonderful! " 
 he exclaimed when she stopped. She 
 nodded, and swung herself around on the 
 piano-stool. 
 
 " Do you remember whether the cobs 
 were light chestnut ? " she asked. 
 
16 GALLOPS 
 
 " I do not," said the bishop ; and mut- 
 tering to himself, he left the room. 
 
 THE Alden Adamses, their niece, and 
 Bishop Cunningham found the usual party 
 at the Galloways' that evening ; but young 
 Colfax sent word that he was indisposed. 
 At the last moment the tip had come that 
 there was to be a quiet cocking-main in 
 the village. He considered the advisa- 
 bility of taking the bishop, who seemed to 
 him to have possibilities worth cultivating, 
 but decided that it might cause talk. 
 
 The bishop was rather confused by the 
 fashion in which the people at the dinner 
 addressed each other by their Christian 
 names, or even more informally; but he 
 sat next to Mrs. Galloway, who impressed 
 him favorably. She was the daughter of 
 a Philadelphia millionaire who was a pillar 
 of the Presbyterian faith, and she had been 
 married only a year. It was her first 
 season at Oakdale, and the bishop experi- 
 enced a certain feeling of relief in her 
 company. The dinner was good, if the 
 guests were somewhat noisy; and the 
 
PARISH OF ST. THOMAS EQUINUS 17 
 
 bishop adapted himself to the conditions 
 with the cheerfulness of a liberal church- 
 man and a man of culture. Mrs. Gallo- 
 way, he found, although a dissenter by 
 birth, adopted her husband's religious pref- 
 erences in the country ; and she was so 
 much interested in the bishop's project 
 for a boys' gild in the village that he was 
 encouraged to believe his first impressions 
 of Oakdale incorrect. He felt again as 
 though he were in a society which he 
 understood ; and, furthermore, the reliable 
 victoria horses were in the stable waiting 
 to take him home. 
 
 Miss Colfax, who sat on his right, 
 appeared content with the occasional 
 remarks which served her other neighbor, 
 Jimmy Braybrooke, in the stead of con- 
 versation, and left the prelate for the most 
 part to his hostess. As the dessert was 
 served, however, he became aware that 
 Miss Colfax was talking down the table 
 to Galloway about the afternoon's horse- 
 trade ; and this conversation attracted Mrs. 
 Galloway's attention also. 
 
 She heard her husband say, " Oh, yes, 
 
18 GALLOPS 
 
 Lorelei will jump anything." There was 
 a lull in the talk, and the words came dis- 
 tinctly. She looked up. 
 
 "Lorelei?" she repeated half aloud. 
 Then, raising her voice : " Charley Gallo- 
 way, you don't mean to tell me you traded 
 that horse to Mr. Colfax? If you did, 
 you will take her back. You told me 
 yesterday she was broken down and not 
 worth twenty- five cents." 
 
 A roar of laughter broke from the men 
 — all except the bishop. He was regard- 
 ing Mrs. Galloway with silent admiration. 
 Yet, as Varick said afterward, he must 
 have missed half the joke, because he was 
 unaware that the lady spoke with the 
 authority which clothes the bank-account 
 of an establishment. 
 
 Galloway, the unblushing, was for once 
 discomfited, and the laughter rose again. 
 Just then the footman whispered some- 
 thing in his ear, and he hastily left the 
 room. 
 
 " I trust there has been some mistake 
 about this," remarked the bishop, benevo- 
 lently. 
 
PARISH OF ST. THOMAS EQUINUS 19 
 
 " He ought to be ashamed of himself," 
 said Miss Colfax. " Willie would never 
 have done such a thing. It 's dishonor- 
 able." 
 
 " Excuse me, Miss Colfax ! " said Mrs. 
 Galloway, flushing. 
 
 " Goodness me!" the bishop murmured. 
 Then in his professional voice he began an 
 anecdote that figured in his favorite ser- 
 mon; but, to his relief, Galloway entered 
 the room again, and all eyes were turned 
 upon him. 
 
 " He 's been writing Willie a check," 
 Varick suggested in a loud whisper. But 
 he took no notice of Varick. He remained 
 standing, one hand on the back of his chair, 
 his napkin in the other. A smile puckered 
 the corners of his mouth. 
 
 " I am informed," he said pleasantly, 
 " that Tim, my stable-boy, has broken two 
 legs, and that Albion, the horse I got from 
 my friend Colfax to-day, has broken one. 
 I ordered him tried on the steeplechase 
 course, and he ran through the liverpool. 
 They shot him. And Tim's mother, who 
 is Mrs. Galloway's laundress, is going to 
 
20 GALLOPS 
 
 prosecute me. She says I had no business 
 to put the boy on such a horse." 
 
 "Albion? Albion?" said Captain 
 Forbes. " Is that the horse ? Well, he 
 has rather an ugly reputation. He ran 
 through a jump over in Canada last year, 
 and killed his jockey." 
 
 Another burst of laughter made the 
 candle-flames tremble, and an unholy 
 smile grew upon Mrs. Galloway's meek 
 little mouth. It was a smile that made 
 the bishop shudder and turn away his 
 head. He glanced at Eleanor Colfax. 
 Her face was expressionless. Her lips 
 moved, but in the hubbub only he and 
 Braybrooke heard. 
 
 " I am very sorry," she said, " that the 
 little idiot broke his legs ; but he probably 
 pulled the horse into the jump. He can't 
 ride, and never will be able to learn. Mr. 
 Galloway should have known better than 
 to trust him with the horse." 
 
 " That 's exactly it," Braybrooke as- 
 sented, while the laughter of the others 
 still rippled on. 
 
 " Bless me ! " said the bishop to himself, 
 
PARISH OF ST. THOMAS EQUINUS 21 
 
 " this is extraordinary — most extraordi- 
 nary! I beg pardon!" he exclaimed, 
 recovering his senses and rising hastily, for 
 the ladies were leaving the room. 
 
 During the rest of the evening Bishop 
 Cunningham, the practised diner-out, 
 opened not his mouth. When he eventu- 
 ally reached the haven of his bedchamber, 
 he took up his diary, as he had done 
 nightly for fifty years. Then he paused. 
 The events of the day passed before his 
 mind's eye like the unordered memories of 
 a play : the red dog-cart, the tandem, the 
 foppish youth who calmly guided the run- 
 away horses and proposed they should 
 enjoy it while it lasted ; Mr. Galloway, his 
 waistcoat, the jumping cow, and the pecu- 
 liar incidents of the horse-trade ; the tea- 
 table, and the two fair young women. 
 
 The bishop had come to know many 
 curious things about women, for he had 
 known many women as the father confessor 
 does ; but he said to himself that these 
 were a new sort. The picture of the girl 
 rose before him as she looked when she 
 stopped her wonderful playing to ask about 
 
22 GALLOPS 
 
 the chestnut cobs. He thought of her 
 gentle gray eyes, and then of her words 
 at the dinner-table when she heard about 
 the boy's accident. " Has she two souls," 
 he murmured, "or none?" From Elea- 
 nor Colfax his mind turned to Mrs. Gallo- 
 way and the way she had smiled, and to 
 her guests, — gentlefolk, — who talked of 
 broken bones as one might talk of but- 
 tered muffins, and seemed to consider the 
 legal doctrine of caveat emptor a pleasant 
 matter of course in horse-trading. Ac- 
 cording to his habit, he labored to classify 
 his impressions in the pigeonholes of his 
 mind, and to index them, so to say, in his 
 diary. How long he labored he knew not, 
 but his efforts were vain. His thoughts 
 came and went in a hopeless jumble, and 
 the page lay blank before him. Suddenly 
 he heard the tall clock in the lower hallway 
 sound its prelude of muffled arpeggios, and 
 then two low, throbbing strokes. He 
 dipped his pen in the ink, and wrote 
 hastily : 
 
 Oakdale, October the Twenty -fourth.— A most 
 extraordinary day! 
 
PARISH OF ST. THOMAS EQUINUS 23 
 And below, as if in afterthought : 
 
 Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou 
 clothed his neck with thunder? (Job xxxix. 19.) 
 
 Then, with a sigh, he closed the book. 
 
braybrooke's double- 
 
 event STEEPLECHASE 
 
II 
 
 BRAYBROOKE S DOUBLE-EVENT STEEPLE- 
 CHASE 
 
 JIMMY BRAYBROOKE'S pony turned 
 into the Hunt Club driveway, because 
 it took a fancy to do so. The reins hung 
 loose. Braybrooke was thinking about 
 other things. Twenty minutes before, he 
 had closed an interview with a certain girl 
 which caused him more trouble than he 
 had ever imagined there could be in the 
 entire world. A lump ached in his throat, 
 and there was a sick feeling lower down. 
 It began to rain, and he took off his cap ; 
 the rain on his head was grateful. But it 
 was all his own fault, he reflected ; he had 
 brought it on himself. Who was he, any- 
 way ? 
 
 27 
 
28 GALLOPS 
 
 He answered himself bitterly that he had 
 never done anything but try to become a 
 jockey,and had n't succeeded even at that ; 
 his own stable-boys laughed at his riding. 
 A comforting friend might have pointed out 
 that to a youth of twenty-four with twenty 
 thousand a year much may be forgiven. 
 If such an idea entered Braybrooke's mind, 
 it passed quickly out. This was not that 
 kind of girl. She wanted a man who 
 could be somebody, or at least could do 
 something. He reflected miserably on 
 the years in which he had steadfastly 
 baffled his educators. 
 
 " I can read," he groaned, " and spell 
 with a dictionary, and that 's about the 
 limit. I 'm a poor lot." 
 
 The pony took the path that led past the 
 smoking-room. Braybrooke heard the 
 sound of voices, and mechanically dis- 
 mounted. Crossing the stirrups through the 
 reins, he turned the horse toward the stable 
 and moved noiselessly to the open window. 
 Through the slats of the blinds he could 
 look into the room without being seen. 
 
 " And what am I offered for that good 
 
BRAYBROOKE'S STEEPLECHASE 29 
 
 mare, Mrs. 'Awkins? " he heard some one 
 bawl. 
 
 Mrs. Hawkins was his own mare. 
 Varick was on the table, auctioning pools 
 on the steeplechase that was to come 
 off the next day for the great Oakdale 
 Cup. They had made him auctioneer 
 because he had a talent for imitating the 
 speech of cockney touts. " Shut your 
 eyes," Chalmers used to say, " and you 'd 
 think you were at Guttenberg in the old 
 days." 
 
 " Do I 'ear fifty? " cried Varick, sarcas- 
 tically. " Only fifty for that lovely mare, 
 and Mister Braybrooke hisself to ride?" 
 A roar of laughter followed the mention 
 of Braybrooke. " Believe me, gents, she 's 
 the faivrite, Mrs. 'Awkins — by Coster- 
 monger out of Lizer ; and the only Mr. B. 
 to pilot." 
 
 " I bid thirty cents," said Galloway, 
 dryly. 
 
 " I say, is n't that a bit rough?" asked 
 a quiet-looking young man. " If you 
 don't mind, I '11 make it five dollars." 
 
 "Bless your generous heart!" said 
 
3 o GALLOPS 
 
 Varick. " Do I hear six ? " There was no 
 response. "And sold for five dollars to 
 Mr. Abercrombie." 
 
 "Who is a stranger," Galloway ob- 
 served. 
 
 Abercrombie bowed his acknowledg- 
 ments, and became the owner of Mrs. 
 Hawkins's chances in the pool, which 
 rapidly grew into a round sum. 
 
 " A good horse," Captain Forbes re- 
 marked to the purchaser ; " but Bray- 
 brooke is a hoodoo." 
 
 The young man outside the window 
 flushed. 
 
 " I am, am I?" he muttered. He went 
 softly around the house and passed in. A 
 volley of chaffing remarks greeted him. 
 
 " Your great race-horse is sold, O for- 
 tunate youth!" said Varick. 
 
 " Perhaps," said Braybrooke, quietly, 
 " some of you fellows would like to bet. 
 I 'm backing my mare even against the 
 field." 
 
 There was no difficulty in getting men 
 to bet. 
 
 " Keep your money, my son," said 
 
BRAYBROOKE'S STEEPLECHASE 31 
 
 Chalmers, kindly, putting his hand on the 
 young man's shoulder. For answer he 
 made another entry in his note-book. 
 Finally he remarked that he stood to win 
 the price of a steam-yacht, and the con- 
 sensus of sound sporting judgment was 
 expressed by Varick. 
 
 "Providence," he said, "has sent this 
 rich youth into a community with impaired 
 incomes and refined ideas of both horse- 
 flesh and living. It would be ingratitude 
 to pass him by." 
 
 For this, Mrs. Innis, his widowed sister- 
 in-law, called him a horrid brute, which 
 was merely more evidence that Braybrooke 
 needed sympathy and common sense. 
 
 The verdict of the Oakdale Hunt on Bray- 
 brooke was neither biased nor harsh. He 
 rode heavily, and badly for one who had 
 ridden so much. His judgment led him 
 wrong when he used it, and when he 
 " went it blind," as he usually did, he was 
 likely to perform foolhardy leaps and to 
 commit surprising blunders. And, worst 
 of all, he was truly unlucky. In the long 
 
32 GALLOPS 
 
 series of steeplechases held by the Hunt he 
 had usually ridden favorites, and had regu- 
 larly managed to get them beaten. He 
 seemed incapable of remembering instruc- 
 tions. Several times he had ridden to the 
 right of flags he should have passed on 
 the left; twice his horse had fallen; and 
 once, to his never-ending shame, he had 
 fallen off his horse. Two years before, he 
 had actually come in first, but dismounted 
 before the judges gave him permission, 
 was duly disqualified, and saw the second 
 man take the cup. Mrs. Innis herself ad- 
 mitted that it was hard to imagine any 
 course but a deep railroad-cut over which 
 it would be possible for Brooky to win. 
 
 Therefore, when the bugle sounded, and 
 the nine horses paraded past the line of 
 four-in-hands and traps, no one took much 
 notice of Braybrooke, except to wonder 
 in which particular stupid way he was 
 going to lose the race. 
 
 " It 's a pity," said Captain Forbes, 
 who was not going to ride, and was on 
 the Alden Adamses' yellow drag, " that 
 the mare can't go over the course with a 
 
BRAYBROOKE'S STEEPLECHASE 33 
 
 dummy up. She 's uncommon fit, and 
 she knows enough to win by herself; but 
 it 's a good deal to ask of a horse to have 
 brains for two." 
 
 The tall girl on the box beside him 
 turned her back, and began polishing the 
 lenses of her field-glass. 
 
 As the riders came up for the start, 
 Braybrooke knit his brow, and labored to 
 recall the parting words of his trainer. 
 Conolly had said : 
 
 " Keep her head far to the right at the 
 brushed hurdle, sir. It 's a bit higher 
 there, but she 's took a dislike to the hole 
 in the brush on the left, and she '11 re- 
 fuse." 
 
 To Braybrooke those words were mere 
 sounds. His eyes kept wandering down 
 the line of four-in-hands toward the yellow 
 coach. He shut them, and turned his 
 head away. He called himself a fool. 
 Then the mare reared impatiently, and he 
 began to feel the excitement of the thing. 
 He found himself repeating, " The hole — 
 the brushed hurdle — the hole — the brushed 
 hurdle," till the words lost all semblance 
 3 
 
34 
 
 GALLOPS 
 
 of sense. The starter called out to him 
 sharply. He turned back into line, and 
 set his teeth. 
 
 The flag dropped, and nine eager horses 
 broke away together. Braybrooke found 
 himself galloping easily in the middle of the 
 bunch, the mare well within herself. She 
 drew ahead slightly, even under his heavy 
 pull. It was plain that she was the speedi- 
 est of the lot ; the question was, could she 
 stay? 
 
 The field strung out as it swept on to 
 the first jump, for the cautious were will- 
 ing to wait for a lead. In front with Bray- 
 brooke, and to his left, was Chalmers on 
 Tomahawk ; to his right was Willie Colfax 
 on Canterbury. The three took the hurdle 
 almost together. Presently Mrs. Hawkins 
 began to draw away, and she was gallop- 
 ing so handily that Braybrooke let her cut 
 out the pace. 
 
 " A mile of this will do for Tomahawk," 
 Chalmers said anxiously to Colfax, who 
 was still by his side. 
 
 " It 's no place for this nag," was the 
 answer. " Let Brooky go. He '11 ride 
 
BRAYBROOKE'S STEEPLECHASE 35 
 
 out soon. When he gets ahead he always 
 feels lost." Braybrooke, however, kept 
 steadily on, and flew the water-jump ten 
 lengths in the lead. 
 
 The course led around the great mea- 
 dow, over a broad ditch, over another 
 hurdle, and then, with a curving sweep, 
 on to the liverpool. Chalmers and Colfax 
 still galloped abreast. Each believed that 
 he had " the legs " of the other on the run 
 in, and was glad that his opponent did not 
 force the pace in order to stay with Mrs. 
 Hawkins. 
 
 Braybrooke was now twenty good 
 lengths in front, and, barring accidents, 
 obviously had the race, for the mare was 
 still rating along under a pull. But the 
 knowing spectators who were following 
 the race with their glasses had seen the 
 same thing too often before to be anxious 
 about their bets against Braybrooke. 
 
 "Two to one," said Chalmers, who was 
 beginning to pant, " that he goes off at 
 the liverpool." 
 
 " No takers," gasped Colfax, with a grin ; 
 but the mare never swerved as she raced 
 
36 GALLOPS 
 
 at the ugly jump ; she flew rail, ditch, and 
 hurdle grandly, and was on again. A cry 
 of admiration burst from Chalmers. Col- 
 fax saved his breath. He was shortening 
 his reins and settling back in the saddle. 
 It is absorbing to go at a stiff liverpool, 
 twenty miles an hour, on a horse that is no 
 longer fresh. Both cleared it, but Mrs. 
 Hawkins was still stretching out her lead. 
 
 "Afraid we 're done for," puffed Chal- 
 mers. Colfax nodded. The same idea 
 was passing through Braybrooke's mind. 
 " I 've got 'em beaten this time," he mur- 
 mured. He smiled and stood forward in 
 the stirrups, fancying that he was " riding 
 light." The course turned abruptly, and 
 the brushed hurdle came in sight. 
 
 " Here 's the hole," he muttered. There 
 was a bitten-out piece in the brush at the 
 left, and he began to ride for it. As he 
 afterward observed, he ought to have dis- 
 charged Conolly for mentioning the matter 
 at all. When a person tells you about a 
 hole in a fence while you are mounting, 
 you would be an ass to inquire whether 
 you were meant to profit by it; naturally, 
 
BRAYBROOKE'S STEEPLECHASE 37 
 
 it would never occur to anybody that you 
 were meant to avoid it and to jump big. 
 
 Mrs. Hawkins began to pull off toward 
 the right, but Braybrooke gathered her 
 firmly and drove her for the low place with 
 the spur. The trainer, who was at the 
 finish with his master's glass, turned his 
 back. 
 
 Then happened what is likely to happen 
 when a thoroughbred horse is driven at 
 something it does not want to jump. 
 Throwing her head up angrily, Mrs. 
 Hawkins swerved sharply away from the 
 hurdle and crashed into the high wing on 
 the side. Braybrooke, not anticipating 
 this, continued on alone and took the 
 hurdle at the low place. A hushed cry 
 of apprehension ran through the distant 
 crowd. The knowing ones laughed to 
 themselves, and felt relieved about their 
 bets. Braybrooke staggered to his feet, 
 dazed but uninjured. 
 
 "Wonderful leap! " called out Colfax 
 as, a moment later, he and Chalmers, still 
 side by side, swept over. 
 
 Braybrooke reached his horse as she 
 
38 GALLOPS 
 
 was disentangling herself from the remains 
 of the fence. By some freak of chance 
 the end of a splintered board had caught 
 through the head-stall. With a vicious 
 jerk of her head the band slipped over her 
 ears, the throat-latch broke, and she tore 
 herself free. Braybrooke gasped. He 
 was standing beside a horse without bridle 
 or reins. Varick, on Good Morning, 
 slashed by him. He glanced at the 
 horses in front, at the field thundering up 
 behind. Then he pushed the mare's head 
 toward the jump, and vaulted into the 
 saddle. 
 
 " Get off!" he heard some one cry from 
 behind. He only gripped the harder with 
 his knees; but he knew what it meant — 
 three jumps at the end of a race, with 
 neither bit nor rein to steady a tiring 
 horse. 
 
 Following Good Morning, Mrs. Hawkins 
 bucked from a standstill over the brush at 
 its highest point, and started after the 
 leaders. The blood of twenty grandfathers 
 and of the Godolphin Arab back of them 
 was running in her veins. She was a race- 
 
BRAYBROOKE'S STEEPLECHASE 39 
 
 horse, and she kept the track. In a few 
 strides she went by Good Morning, and 
 threw pieces of turf into that weary geld- 
 ing's face, which disgusted him mightily 
 and his rider more. Varick dismally 
 thought of his long odds. 
 
 Colfax was about eight lengths ahead. 
 The mare's wonderful pace held on. As 
 they swung into the stretch she passed 
 him. Chalmers was flogging Tomahawk, 
 still three lengths in the lead. He thought 
 Colfax was coming up. For a moment 
 he held his own, and the cry " Tomahawk 
 wins!" began to come from the carriages. 
 
 But Tomahawk had done his best; his 
 tail was waving the distress- signal; and 
 Mrs. Hawkins began steadily closing up. 
 Such a burst had never been seen on the 
 Oakdale meadow before. Twenty yards 
 from the flags, Chalmers looked bewildered 
 as he saw the mare's little head, innocent 
 of harness, forge past his saddle. He for- 
 got to flog Tomahawk, but it mattered 
 little ; Tomahawk was a beaten horse. 
 
 Braybrooke, sitting immovable as a 
 statue, shot a clear length in advance, and 
 
40 GALLOPS 
 
 passed between the flags, while the hyster- 
 ical shouting that greets the winner roared 
 down the line. 
 
 An excited crowd thronged the track, 
 and a hundred pairs of hands stretched 
 out officiously to catch the bridleless mare. 
 She kicked one man on the knee-cap. 
 After that they gave her room, and she 
 followed the joyous Conolly toward the 
 judges. 
 
 Then a tall, slender girl jumped from 
 the box of the yellow coach and strug- 
 gled through the crowd. The little mare 
 was standing quietly, her flanks heav- 
 ing, her nostrils flecked with foam. Her 
 eyes were bloodshot, but there was a 
 mild dignity in them — a look that said, 
 " I have run a race." The girl made her 
 way to the horse, shot a swift glance at 
 Braybrooke, and flung her arms about his 
 mount's dripping neck. The crowd faded 
 out from Braybrooke's eyes, the hubbub 
 died away in his ears. His senses were 
 lost for the time in a great thrill which the 
 look in the girl's gray eyes sent through 
 him. 
 
BRAYBROOKE'S STEEPLECHASE 41 
 
 " You 've spoiled your dress," he said. 
 
 Then the girl blushed, and drew back in 
 the crowd. Scores of hands shook his, but 
 it was as if they had not. He was the hero 
 of the day, but the victory seemed 
 strangely different from the thing he had 
 imagined so often. He weighed in me- 
 chanically, and passing his hand across his 
 eyes, followed the mare toward the trap 
 where the blankets were. 
 
 "The fall must have shaken him up," 
 he heard some one say. Perhaps it had. 
 The crowding figures seemed far off and 
 strange. He put his face to the mare's 
 sweaty neck where the girl's arms had 
 been, and kissed it. Forbes smiled. 
 " She 's won his first race for him," he 
 said to the man with him, who was a 
 visitor. "Good boy, Jimmy!" he added 
 to Braybrooke, and Braybrooke nodded 
 absently. 
 
 The stable-boys put the blankets on, 
 and asked him if he wished anything 
 special done for the mare. He told them 
 to spray her off knee, — she had rapped it 
 going into the wing of the jump, — and 
 
42 GALLOPS 
 
 they led her away. A stiffness in the 
 region of his shoulder-blades gave warning 
 that he himself was going to have a lame 
 back. Conolly, who had lingered, noted 
 his cautious experiments with the bruised 
 muscles. 
 
 " They say you went over pretty fast, 
 sir," he observed, " but I did n't see it 
 meself. I turned me back, sir, when I see 
 you making for the hole." 
 
 " Conolly," said Braybrooke, " if you 
 had n't mentioned the hole I should have 
 jumped the high place and never got 
 tangled up in the wing. But, then, — you 
 probably think, whether you say it to me 
 or not, — the mare would n't have lost her 
 bridle, and I should have got out of the 
 course as usual. I don't agree with you, 
 but I think I '11 have to raise your wages." 
 
 The man touched his hat impassively. 
 " It 's a great cup you 've won, sir," he 
 said. 
 
 "You 're right," said Braybrooke; "it 
 is." 
 
 And so it was. They christened it that 
 night at the Alden Adamses' dinner. 
 
BRAYBROOKE'S STEEPLECHASE 43 
 
 Varick made a mysterious speech, and 
 named it the Great Double-Event Cup. 
 But by that time everybody at the dinner 
 knew what the second event was, so no 
 one was really mystified, and Miss Colfax 
 began to receive good wishes and " God 
 bless you " glances before Varick gave his 
 "double toast" and called on "the win- 
 ner" to respond. 
 
HOW THE FENCE-BREAKERS' 
 LEAGUE WAS "STUMPED" 
 
Ill 
 
 HOW THE FENCE-BREAKERS' LEAGUE 
 WAS "STUMPED" 
 
 THE morals and practices of the Fence- 
 Breakers' League had reached a 
 point where they demanded and had re- 
 ceived the attention of the officers of the 
 Hunt. It is sound hunting doctrine to 
 ride straight when the hounds are running, 
 and to turn aside only for wire and wheat : 
 for wire, because a man is supposed to 
 consider his horse, whether he considers 
 himself or not; for wheat, because in 
 America fox-hunting exists by the cour- 
 tesy of free and independent landowners. 
 But when the pack is not in cry the 
 authorities hold it bad manners to en- 
 danger the fences by choosing the highest 
 47 
 
48 GALLOPS 
 
 panels, and immoral to jump at all when 
 there are open gates. 
 
 In the Oakdale Hunt there was a fac- 
 tion of unbalanced youth which violated 
 these precepts, at first on the sly, then 
 openly and without shame. It is a great 
 pity that all the best sports should be 
 subject to the same corrupting evil — the 
 rivalry of the reckless. With polo and 
 hunting it develops dangerously, and is 
 usually cured only by some one getting 
 seriously broken. When a master of fox- 
 hounds notes " jealous riding " he begins 
 to tremble for his puppies, which are in 
 danger of being ridden down, and to pre- 
 pare himself for an era of accidents and 
 agrarian difficulties. 
 
 The Fence-Breakers' League exempli- 
 fied this evil in its most virulent form. 
 Their name had been given as a stigma, 
 in the vain hope that it might shame them 
 into mending their ways. They accepted 
 it, however, as a distinction, proceeded to 
 organize, to elect officers, and to institute 
 weekly dinners, of which the less said the 
 better. It was after one of these dinners 
 
THE FENCE-BREAKERS' LEAGUE 49 
 
 that the great Moonlight Steeplechase was 
 run. 
 
 Captain Forbes, with the interests of 
 the Hunt at heart, undertook to remon- 
 strate privately with Varick. 
 
 " This thing is causing no end of trouble," 
 he said. " You have broken half the fences 
 in the county, and the farmers are mad 
 clean through. I can understand those 
 fool boys acting in such a way, but I 
 really am surprised that you should en- 
 courage them." Varick was thirty-five, 
 and might have been a brilliant lawyer if 
 he had not chosen to jeer at the earnest- 
 ness of a utilitarian generation, and to 
 become an indifferent horse-jockey. 
 
 " Forbes," said he, " you are a man 
 whom youth overlooked." 
 
 "Bosh!" said the captain; "do be 
 serious." 
 
 "You are beguiling me to disparage 
 that generous disregard of consequences 
 which gives life its poetry and hope. 
 However, I could n't stop the thing if I 
 wanted to. You know as well as I do 
 that boys who jump oak gates when no 
 
50 GALLOPS 
 
 one is looking are not open to argument. 
 Take Galloway. Galloway is unaffectedly 
 insane about horses. He thinks and 
 dreams of nothing else ; and it is as much 
 to him to take his black mare over some- 
 thing no one else will jump as it is for a 
 doctor to find a new disease. He keeps 
 a diary of all his fences over five feet, goes 
 back next day with a tape, and, when 
 possible, kodaks them too. He intends 
 to publish a work entitled, ' Fences I have 
 Jumped.' Can I conscientiously urge him 
 to renounce all that makes life worth while 
 for him, and would he renounce it if I 
 did? The rest of the crowd are all more 
 or less on the same pattern — excepting 
 myself." 
 
 " Well," said Forbes, who was getting 
 impatient, "what are you?" 
 
 " I am an Epicurean philosopher. I 
 jump things because I am afraid ; and the 
 pleasure I experience when I am over is 
 worth an occasional spill. I also like to 
 be thought something of a devil. Besides, 
 you and Crawford " — Crawford was the 
 M. F. H. — " take fox-hunting with such 
 
THE FENCE-BREAKERS' LEAGUE 51 
 
 elaborate seriousness, and are such chil- 
 dren of dogma, that I encourage schism 
 and strife simply for the joy of it. Forbes, 
 I might have been a great revolutionist — " 
 
 "You be blanked!" said the captain, 
 and departed. This ended the effort to 
 abate the Fence-Breakers' League by 
 means of sweet reasonableness. 
 
 "The tomb yawns for them," said the 
 M. F. H. when he heard Forbes's story ; 
 " and I am half sorry it has been disap- 
 pointed so long. This Hunt is becoming 
 intolerable for decent hunting-men." 
 
 Then the governors imposed fines for 
 breakage till the club bank-account swelled 
 to unrecognizable proportions; but the 
 Fence-Breakers' League paid with cheer- 
 fulness. 
 
 "We are now indebted to no man," 
 Varick explained ; " and a great deal of 
 money is not to be compared with the 
 satisfaction of self-respect. The tedium 
 of drawing blank coverts loses its terror 
 when a man can hear his horse's hind feet 
 trail through a board fence without a 
 pang of conscience." And so the Fence- 
 
52 GALLOPS 
 
 Breakers' League grew steadily more de- 
 moralized and demoralizing. 
 
 Said the master, finally : " I am afraid 
 only sudden death will stop this nonsense. 
 Of course it is prejudicial to the sport to 
 have people killed, but in this case I think 
 it would be best." 
 
 The following Saturday the Fence- 
 Breakers' League were gathered in the 
 club smoking-room, discussing the proba- 
 bility of a dull afternoon, while they 
 waited for the hounds. On Saturdays 
 there were bigger fields, and wretched 
 one-day-a-week men who came down 
 from town were sure to get in the way 
 and crowd. Besides, it was too dry to 
 expect good scent. 
 
 " This is the kind of afternoon," said 
 Galloway, " when you insult a good horse 
 by taking him out." A flabby young man 
 who was not among the half-dozen of the 
 Fence-Breakers' League agreed with him. 
 
 " On dry days," said he, " Crawford 
 ought to give us a point-to-point for a 
 sweepstake cup." 
 
 Galloway smiled, because this young 
 
THE FENCE-BREAKERS' LEAGUE 53 
 
 man was apt to be taken ill before a stee- 
 plechase. But the talk stopped, for the 
 M. F. H. himself unexpectedly entered, 
 followed by a stranger. 
 
 " Here, Charley," said he, " I want you 
 to know some of these fellows. When you 
 get lost this afternoon, they will look after 
 you." He called off the names of the 
 group of men, while the stranger acknow- 
 ledged the introductions with stiff nods. 
 Just then a cracking of whips in the dis- 
 tance told the M. F. H. that the hounds had 
 started from the kennels, and he hurried out. 
 
 The M. F. H. was absent-minded, and 
 apt to introduce people in this one-sided 
 fashion; and he often produced exceed- 
 ingly queer persons, such as are rarely 
 seen in a hunting-country. He had been 
 at school in England, and had lived pretty 
 much everywhere. Varick used to say 
 that he had met chums of Crawford's all 
 the way from the North Cape to Fiji. 
 
 The stranger who had thus been 
 intrusted to the keeping of the Fence- 
 Breakers' League was a short, insignifi- 
 cant-looking man, about fifty, with a red, 
 
54 GALLOPS 
 
 smoothly shaven face and small white 
 hands. Instead of top-boots and proper 
 hunting-things, he wore tweed breeches, 
 with gaiters, and a rough shooting-coat. 
 This coat was peculiar. Its skirts were 
 cut back so little that they hid the thighs, 
 suggesting a frock-coat rather than a cut- 
 away. When the man walked he limped 
 stiffly, and two curious loops showed on 
 his right breeches' leg just below the hip. 
 They were like the loops sewed on the 
 waistband of breeches to hold a belt. 
 
 It was obvious that the newcomer was 
 something odd. It was also clear that he 
 was not a hunting-man, for the M. F. H. 
 had referred to his getting lost as a matter 
 of course. Committing him to the care of 
 the Fence-Breakers' League under these 
 circumstances seemed a rather merciless 
 practical joke, but the M. F. H. had a 
 weakness for such jokes. 
 
 Galloway was next to the newcomer, 
 and felt called upon to make conversation ; 
 also, he was not without a healthy curi- 
 osity to find out who the man was. 
 
 " Pretty hot," Galloway began. 
 
THE FENCE-BREAKERS' LEAGUE 55 
 
 "Yes," said the stranger; "too hot to 
 ride much." 
 
 " Your first time in the Oakdale coun- 
 try?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Brought any horses down? " 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Seen the hounds yet?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Pretty fair pack. Got ten new couples 
 from the Earl of Reddesdale's kennels." 
 
 "Yes, I know." 
 
 " Had more rain in your country? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Too dry here for much sport." 
 
 "Yes; too dry, quite." 
 
 " Have something to drink?" 
 
 "Thanks, no." 
 
 " Excuse me, I will" ; and Galloway beat 
 a retreat to the lunch-room. 
 
 "Well," said Varick, who had followed 
 him, "your friend is hardly garrulous." 
 
 Galloway scowled. "This," said he, 
 " is the last time I shall try to make things 
 pleasant for people I don't know. What 
 do you suppose that fellow is?" 
 
56 GALLOPS 
 
 " Some little painter-man, I dare say ; 
 sticks his brushes through those straps on 
 his trousers' leg. He probably feels bash- 
 ful, and out of it, with so much horse all 
 around. You ought to have talked art at 
 him." 
 
 "Well," said Galloway, " I am not re- 
 vengeful; but, all the same, I think I owe 
 him one out of self-respect. If I get the 
 chance, I shall treat that painter-man to 
 a few thrills. Let 's have another look at 
 him." They went to the door of the 
 smoking-room. The stranger was in a 
 corner by the window, with a book. 
 
 " That 's our copy of Tennyson," said 
 Varick ; " I know the cover. Perhaps 
 he *s a poet." 
 
 " If I can get him to jump," said Gallo- 
 way, " I sha'n't care what he is. Still, a 
 leaping poet would be especially worth 
 encouraging. Hello! there 's the horn." 
 They hurried out to their horses, mounted, 
 and followed the pack down the drive. 
 
 The day was too dry for scent, as had 
 been foreseen. The field pottered about 
 from one blank covert to another, and the 
 
THE FENCE-BREAKERS' LEAGUE 57 
 
 members of the Fence-Breakers' League 
 endeavored to work off their restlessness 
 by such means as were at hand. They 
 "larked" five-foot rails and regulation 
 four-boarders, plain and with ditch accom- 
 paniments. They tackled all the stone 
 walls that seemed worthy, and enjoyed 
 themselves generally, rousing the envy of 
 such as would have liked to imitate them 
 but were afraid, and exciting the disgust 
 of the mature. Finally the league resolved 
 to pull out in a body, in order to express 
 their censure of the M. F. H. for offering 
 such wretched sport, and " to take a ride." 
 Only the long-suffering farmers across 
 whose lands the course of these Fence- 
 Breakers' " rides " have lain can do them 
 justice. The motto which Varick had be- 
 stowed upon the society was Fit via vi, 
 and classicists translate it, " A way is made 
 by force." But the M. F. H. said he pre- 
 ferred Willie Colfax's personal version, 
 " Fits by the way," although either render- 
 ing was appropriate. 
 
 " Varick," said Galloway, " start the 
 procession for the meadow bridge, and 
 
58 GALLOPS 
 
 I '11 get that poet chap to come along. 
 Keep the road as far as you can, and don't 
 jump anything till we get across. My 
 conscience is clear, for Crawford has put 
 him up on the Duke." This was the 
 master's very best horse. 
 
 The meadow bridge belonged to a 
 farmer who owned the land on both sides 
 of the stream, and was chiefly used to 
 take his cattle from one pasture to the 
 other. The banks were too steep to climb, 
 and the river was too deep to ford, even 
 if there had been a path down to it. Be- 
 yond the bridge, and between it and the 
 village, was a series of the stiffest, biggest 
 post-and-rail fences in the county. A man 
 who rode over this course needed a good 
 horse and a big heart, or- — what some- 
 times passes for the same thing — a big 
 flask. They called it the "devil's run." 
 
 Galloway found the stranger, looking 
 badly bored, on the edge of a piece of 
 woods which the master was drawing. 
 The breeze flapped his coat skirts back, and 
 showed a stout strap passed through the 
 mysterious loops on his right breeches' leg. 
 
THE FENCE-BREAKERS' LEAGUE 59 
 
 " Ruptured muscle, I guess," muttered 
 Galloway to himself. " Perhaps I ought n't 
 to — " But he conquered his scruples and 
 unfolded his proposition. 
 
 " Too late for anything to-day. Half 
 a dozen of us are going to pull out, and 
 I thought you might like to come along. 
 Crawford 's so mad at not finding that 
 he 's likely to stop out all night. Instead 
 of going back over the iron bridge we '11 
 cross three miles lower down. Pretty bits 
 of scenery all along. Better come." 
 
 " Much obliged," said the stranger. " I 
 think I will. This is slow." He started 
 his horse, rising awkwardly to the long trot, 
 and Galloway rode beside him, gloating. 
 
 "Charming vista, is n't it?" he said, 
 judging it best to give his conversation an 
 artistic flavor. " I suppose you are fond 
 of landscape." 
 
 " I want my tea," said the stranger. 
 " Crawford overlooked lunch completely." 
 
 Galloway was somewhat taken aback. 
 "Well, the way we are going is a short 
 cut," he observed. For the first time that 
 day the stranger's countenance relaxed 
 
60 GALLOPS 
 
 into something like a smile. " I 've 
 touched his stomach," thought Galloway; 
 "he '11 come." 
 
 They overtook the rest of the party 
 and turned into the river road. Varick 
 had explained what was on foot, and the 
 Fence-Breakers' League hacked along as 
 decorously as a riding-school class in the 
 park. Here and there a wall, here and 
 there a line of wicked-looking pickets, 
 tempted Galloway sorely; but he con- 
 quered his desires. He even reproved 
 Willie Colfax, who weakly suggested just 
 one two-dollar competition over a lovely 
 new oak gate. Had the M. F. H. been 
 there, he would have doubted his senses. 
 
 The light of the short October afternoon 
 failed rapidly, and it was almost dusk 
 when they reached the bridge. Varick 
 was riding ahead, and started out over the 
 rather crazy structure. Suddenly he 
 pulled up short. 
 
 " Here 's a mess ! " he exclaimed ; " this 
 thing is open." 
 
 The owner had taken up a dozen boards 
 to prevent the cattle from crossing. Forty 
 
THE FENCE-BREAKERS' LEAGUE 61 
 
 feet below was the water, looking dismally 
 black. Galloway rode out, surveyed the 
 situation, and came back swearing elo- 
 quently in subdued tones. There was no 
 talk of jumping. A slip at the take-off, the 
 least mistake, and horse and man would 
 rattle down through the underpinning into 
 the water. 
 
 "The devil!" said Galloway, soulfully; 
 and he gazed at the distant lines of fence, 
 and the village spires beyond them, dim 
 against the sky. 
 
 " It *s sure death," said Varick. " It 's 
 twelve feet, if it 's an inch ; and I am too 
 old to die. We might as well get started 
 back, for it 's six miles around to the 
 other bridge." 
 
 The stranger, who had inspected the 
 gap, only half heard. He rode alongside 
 of Galloway. 
 
 "How far to the other bridge?" he 
 asked. 
 
 " Six miles," replied Galloway, sourly. 
 
 "Six miles!" he exclaimed. "Oh, I 
 say, I should never get my tea!" With- 
 out another word, he clapped in his spurs, 
 
62 GALLOPS 
 
 and shot out upon the bridge under full 
 steam. A gasp of horror broke from the 
 knot of men. 
 
 "You can't make it!" shrieked Varick. 
 The Duke gave a mighty spring, and was 
 over, with something to spare. There was 
 an instant's clatter on the boards, and the 
 stranger was checking his horse in the 
 farther meadow. He turned and looked 
 back. Then he called out, with no change 
 in the tone of his dry voice : 
 
 " Any one coming? " 
 
 No one answered. He pointed toward 
 Oakdale, and called again : 
 
 "Is that the village?" 
 
 Again there was no answer, and he 
 rode away. Without speaking, they 
 watched him canter across the meadow, 
 clear the first of the big fences, and fade 
 into a small dark object in the twilight. 
 
 "The Lord deliver us!" said Varick. 
 "Who is that man?" 
 
 But no one was any wiser than he, and 
 there seemed no disposition to speculate 
 idly. The Fence-Breakers' League had 
 
THE FENCE-BREAKERS' LEAGUE 63 
 
 been " stumped," and by a man they had 
 presumed to be an esthete. The disgrace 
 was galling, and the mind of Galloway was 
 filled with particularly bitter reflections. 
 They started back, and presently saw Cap- 
 tain Forbes coming toward them. He was 
 making for the bridge. 
 
 "You can't get over," said Colfax. 
 
 " Unless you happen to have a balloon," 
 added Varick. 
 
 When Forbes gathered what had hap- 
 pened he laughed as he had not laughed 
 in twenty years ; and the Fence-Breakers' 
 League listened, glum and angry. 
 
 " Have you ever heard of Charley Pel- 
 ham, the Earl of Reddesdale?" he asked. 
 
 Now, every hunting-man knows the 
 fame of the hunting Earl of Reddesdale, 
 who rides with his wooden leg strapped to 
 the saddle. 
 
 The Fence-Breakers' League kept si- 
 lence. They were ashamed of themselves. 
 Finally Galloway spoke : 
 
 " What can we do about it? Give him 
 a dinner? " 
 
64 GALLOPS 
 
 " No," said Varick, glancing at Forbes ; 
 " disband." 
 
 " I second that motion," said Willie 
 Colfax, gruffly ; and the Fence- Breakers' 
 League then and there disbanded. 
 
THE RIDE OF HIS LIFE 
 
IV 
 
 THE RIDE OF HIS LIFE 
 
 CORDILLAS Y SANDOVAL was an 
 attache of the Spanish legation, 
 whom Varick invited to Oakdale to please 
 Mrs. Varick and, more especially, her 
 widowed sister. 
 
 " I believe I met him once at the club 
 in Washington," Varick remarked. " I 
 thought he was rather an ass ; but we 've 
 plenty of stable-room. Does he hunt?" 
 
 Mrs. Innis, the sister-in-law, was afraid 
 he did, — in a hunting-country men who 
 do not ride are at a premium, — but was 
 uncertain about it; therefore upon his 
 arrival the question was referred to Cor- 
 dillas himself. 
 
 The Spaniard dashed Mrs. Innis's hopes. 
 67 
 
68 GALLOPS 
 
 He asserted that he was " practised in 
 equestrianism," and "worshiped horses." 
 
 " Yes, and I haf yoomp, too," he added. 
 Then he branched off on the merits of his 
 " fiery-eyed steed " in Madrid, which he 
 was bound to believe would make an un- 
 paralleled " yoomper," although, as there 
 was no fox-hunting in his country, its 
 ability had never been called out. 
 
 " I can see," said Varick, pleasantly 
 interrupting, " that you are the man for 
 us. I shall put you up on that good horse 
 Thomas Dooley." There was duplicity in 
 this, for Varick distrusted the horseman- 
 ship of all Latin foreigners ; but the Span- 
 iard suspected it not, and the sister-in-law 
 discreetly held her peace. 
 
 Thomas Dooley, at the time when fate 
 introduced him to Cordillas, was going on 
 seventeen, and he knew more about get- 
 ting across a hunting-country than men 
 usually acquire in half a century. His 
 ancestry was not dicussed, but he had the 
 best box-stall in Varick's stable, and would 
 be gloriously pensioned when his time of 
 service expired. Ten years back he 
 
THE RIDE OF HIS LIFE 69 
 
 had exchanged the plow for the saddle, as 
 the result of a memorable humiliation which 
 he put upon the entire Oakdale Hunt. One 
 dismal, sloppy morning Dooley had ap- 
 peared at a meet, ridden by a farmer's 
 boy. Not long after the hounds had 
 found, twenty angry men were sitting on 
 as many sulky, discouraged horses in a 
 deep-plowed field waiting for some one to 
 break the fence in front of them. They 
 were not soothed when they saw Dooley 
 playfully switch his flowing tail over five 
 feet of new oak rails, and disappear after the 
 pack. Varick had been one of these men ; 
 and that same afternoon he possessed 
 Thomas Dooley, who ever since had carried 
 him with unerring judgment and ability. 
 As the years went by, Dooley came to be 
 known as Varick's " morning-after " horse, 
 and he never betrayed the confidence this 
 title implied. Nevertheless, it must be said 
 that, for a man whose nerves had not been 
 outraged, Dooley could hardly be called an 
 agreeable mount. 
 
 He was, by general admission, the plain- 
 est horse that ever followed hounds. His 
 
70 GALLOPS 
 
 legs and feet were coarse, and he galloped 
 with as much spring as if he were on stilts. 
 The mighty quarters wherein dwelt his 
 genius for getting over high timber were 
 so much too big for him that he seemed 
 to have got another horse's hind legs by 
 mistake. He had a mouth no bit could 
 conquer. He chose what he would jump, 
 and how, regardless of his rider. Only 
 the certainty that he would never fall 
 made him venerated, and most persons 
 who hunt resent the imputation that they 
 need this kind of horse. If a man's heart 
 is strong with sleep and November air, 
 there is little satisfaction in being carried 
 over the country by a machine. 
 
 When Cordillas made his first appear- 
 ance on Thomas Dooley, it was noted that 
 he rode with uncommonly long stirrup- 
 leathers, — too long for hunting, — and sat 
 as stiff as a horse-guard, bouncing dismally 
 with Thomas's hard trot. The tails of his 
 pink coat were unsullied by the loin-sweat 
 of the chase, and there was no mark of 
 stirrup-iron across the instep of his freshly 
 treed boots. 
 
THE RIDE OF HIS LIFE 71 
 
 " 'E 's quite noo," remarked the first 
 whip, in an undertone. 
 
 "With Thomas," replied the huntsman, 
 " 'e won't be long noo." 
 
 The hounds found unexpectedly, and 
 the advice Varick intended to give his 
 guest was cut short. 
 
 " Don't try to steer him at his fences," 
 he yelled; "it won't do any good." The 
 next moment the rattle-headed four-year- 
 old he was riding took off in a bit of 
 marsh, and became mixed up with a panel 
 of boards. Varick got up in time to see 
 Dooley bucking over from good ground, 
 his rider with him, although well on toward 
 his ears. 
 
 " I guess he '11 do ; he 's got to," said 
 Varick, softly swearing at his muddied 
 boots. He scrambled up into the saddle, 
 saw his guest slide back into his, and to- 
 gether they swept on after the hounds. 
 
 For the most part, Cordillas managed 
 to remain inconspicuous, though he took 
 a spectacular " voluntary " on the way 
 back to the kennels. He tried to " lark " 
 Dooley over a wayside fence, possibly for 
 
72 GALLOPS 
 
 the benefit of Mrs. Innis, who was driving 
 by in her cart. Dooley, knowing that the 
 jump was needless, stopped at the fence 
 and the Spaniard went over alone ; but his 
 heart seemed to be in the right place, and 
 he got up again, laughing. 
 
 The next time he went out, on a hint 
 from Varick he shortened his leathers, 
 thrust his feet home through the irons, and 
 really did very creditably. He was good- 
 looking, and had nice manners ; and Mrs. 
 Innis was so complimentary that by the 
 end of the week he believed himself the 
 keenest man in the field. But as he grew 
 in confidence he also became aware of the 
 reputation which his mount enjoyed. He 
 began to hint to Varick that Dooley was 
 not a suitable horse for him. 
 
 " If I only had my prancer here," he 
 observed, one morning, " you would see 
 yoomping." Finally he told his host 
 point-blank that, however well meant it 
 might be, to give him such a tame mount 
 as Dooley was no kindness; it was a re- 
 flection upon his equestrianism. 
 
 Then said Varick, who was annoyed, 
 
THE RIDE OF HIS LIFE 73 
 
 " You may ride Emperor to-morrow ; but 
 I tell you plainly that he may kill you." 
 For the moment, he almost hoped he 
 would. 
 
 " Fear not," said Cordillas, and thanked 
 him much. 
 
 Varick says that he did not forget to 
 tell William to have Emperor saddled for 
 Cordillas. The head groom refuses to talk 
 about it, but shakes his head. Those who 
 know William hesitate to decide between 
 him and his master, so the truth is likely 
 to remain hid. 
 
 At the meet next morning, Cordillas 
 flabbergasted the stable-boy who assisted 
 him to mount by slipping a bill into his 
 hand. 
 
 " An' 'im a halien," said the boy, as he 
 related the matter to William. " Then 'e 
 pats 'is neck, an' sez 'e, ' Ain't 'e a good 
 'un! Gawd! look at 'is fiery heye! This 
 is a 'oss ! ' ' W'y, yes,' sez I ; 'an' clipped 
 yesterday, sir, which improves 'is looks un- 
 common. I might almost say, sir, one Vd 
 scaicely know 'im.' Then 'e sez, ' Git up, 
 Hemperor!' an' moves awfter 'em." 
 
74 GALLOPS 
 
 That day there was vouchsafed one of 
 those " historic " runs which come usually 
 when a man's best horse is laid up, or when 
 he judges that the day is too dry for scent 
 and stops at home. In the first covert the 
 pack blundered on a fox, and burst wildly 
 out of the woods, every hound giving 
 tongue, and Reynard in full view, barely 
 half a field away. 
 
 The men sat listening to the foxhounds' 
 " music," half-eager bark, half-agonized 
 yelp, with a fluttering of the pulses and a 
 stirring of primeval instincts. The horses 
 quivered and pawed, mouthed the bits, and 
 tossed white slaver into the air. But the 
 hounds had to get their distance; so the 
 field held back, each man intently study- 
 ing the far-off fence, and playing with the 
 mouth of his restless horse. The excited 
 Spaniard tugged on the curb, and his mount 
 reared indignantly. 
 
 "Demon!" he shouted. A snicker 
 rippled from the grooms in the rear. 
 
 " Good Lord ! " exclaimed Varick. " He 
 has n't done that for eight years. Give 
 him his head, man J" 
 
THE RIDE OF HIS LIFE 75 
 
 At that instant the M. F. H. waved his 
 hand, and the field charged across the 
 meadow for the boards, over which the 
 tail-end hounds were scrambling. 
 
 It was seven miles without a check to 
 Christian's Mills, and the fox most of the 
 time in view ; then across the river, horses 
 and hounds swimming together, and on 
 again at a heartbreaking pace to Paddock's 
 Gully, where they killed in the bottom. 
 Three horses that went into the ravine 
 were too pumped to get out again, and 
 stayed there all night. In the memory of 
 man such a run, without slow scent or 
 check, had never been seen. It became 
 the great after-dinner run of the Oakdale 
 Hunt ; and when they brag of their horses, 
 they tell how, twice in the twelve miles, 
 eleven men jumped five feet of stiff timber 
 without breaking a rail. 
 
 In the last mile Cordillas followed the 
 insane Braybrooke over four strands of 
 naked wire that turned the field aside, 
 beat him into the ravine, and was first at 
 the death. They came upon him half 
 buried in the yelping, panting pack which 
 
76 GALLOPS 
 
 fought for the mangled fox he held over 
 his head. 
 
 "Beat 'em off!" yelled Braybrooke. 
 The reply was a torrent of Spanish oaths. 
 Then the huntsman rode up, and rescued 
 Cordillas, plastered with blood and filth, 
 but content. He patted his mount's 
 dripping neck. 
 
 "How magnificent a horse!" he ex- 
 claimed. 
 
 " Carried you extremely well," said 
 Braybrooke. " Never saw the old fellow 
 do better, or show so much speed. Great 
 gallop, was n't it? Let 's have a pull at 
 your flask; mine 's dry." 
 
 "To the run," said the Spaniard, as he 
 received the flask back, " and your good 
 health!" He clutched the mask in his 
 other hand. 
 
 " You rode well, ' ' said Braybrooke. His 
 respect for the Latin races had increased. 
 " The blood 's dripping on your coat," he 
 added, as Galloway came up, but Cordillas 
 only held his trophy closer. 
 
 That night Varick had a man's dinner. 
 
THE RIDE OF HIS LIFE 77 
 
 There were toasts and healths, and bumpers 
 to the five-foot fences, and perdition to the 
 man who invented wire ; bumpers to every 
 good horse and man who was out that day ; 
 long life to hounds, and good luck to all 
 hound puppies. But the Spaniard was 
 the lion of the evening, and toward mid- 
 night there were cries of "Speech!" 
 
 Cordillas rose cautiously, and stood fac- 
 ing the party, with a glass of champagne 
 in his tremulous hand. He was touched, 
 and his voice showed it. He thanked the 
 company as a gentleman, as a Spaniard, 
 and as a sportsman. He spoke in praise 
 of his hosts' country, their women, and 
 their bath-tubs. Then he got around to 
 his prancer in Madrid, and settled down to 
 horses. To an equestrian like himself, he 
 said, whose bosom throbbed in sympathy 
 with every fiery impulse of creation's 
 most noble animal, the fox-chase was the 
 sport of kings. To a distinguished com- 
 pany of huntsmen he might well repeat 
 the words of the English poet, with which 
 they might be familiar, " My kingdom for 
 a horse!" Developing his theme, he as- 
 
78 GALLOPS 
 
 serted that, of the various kinds of horses, 
 the hunter was the noblest. " And of all 
 noble hunters," he shouted, " the noblest, 
 the fieriest, the most intrepid, I haf rode 
 to-day! I drink to Emperor!" 
 
 At that moment Thomas Dooley, the 
 newly clipped, was sniffing a bran mash, 
 stiff and sore with the weariness born of 
 his day's exertions under Cordillas y San- 
 doval. As every one at the table except 
 the Spaniard knew, Emperor had not been 
 out of his stall. 
 
 There was a moment's hush. The toast 
 was drunk in silence. The men looked at 
 one another, and then a tumult of cheers 
 burst forth which set the grooms waiting 
 at the stables to speculating upon the 
 probable condition of their masters. To 
 Cordillas it was an ovation, and the climax 
 of his triumph. The tears stood in his 
 eyes. To the Oakdale Hunt it was the 
 only way of saving appearances and their 
 good breeding. 
 
 " Keep the racket going," said Forbes 
 to Braybrooke. " Don't let him know any 
 one 's laughing." 
 
THE RIDE OF HIS LIFE 79 
 
 " I shall die of this," gasped Willie 
 Colfax; and he slipped under the table, 
 gurgling hysterically. 
 
 What else might have happened no one 
 can say, because Charley Galloway started 
 "For he 's a jolly good fellow!" at the 
 top of his lungs. Mrs. Galloway, who was 
 sitting up for him in her own house half a 
 mile down the road, says she recognized 
 her husband's barytone. Every other 
 man did the best that nature permitted. 
 The Spaniard was reduced to tears, and 
 the party recovered its gravity. 
 
 " But what is going to be the end of 
 this?" whispered Varick to Chalmers. 
 " If he catches on he will have me out, 
 and kill me. And there 's Mrs. Innis; 
 oh, Lord ! Reggie, you know everybody 
 and all about everything in Washington ; if 
 you love me, get him back there." 
 
 Then Chalmers sent for his groom, and 
 wrote some telegrams; and the following 
 afternoon Cordillas came to Varick, sorely 
 cast down, and announced that the minis- 
 ter had sent him imperative orders to 
 return. 
 
80 GALLOPS 
 
 " I fear," he said, " those infamous 
 Cubanos have caused complications which 
 necessitate my presence at the capital." 
 
 Varick said that he was awfully sorry — 
 but saw to it personally that he caught the 
 evening train. As it moved off, the Spaniard 
 stood on the step and wrung his hand. 
 
 " My friend, possessor of that great 
 horse Emperor," he said, " I thank you 
 for the ride of my whole life." 
 
 " Please don't mention it," said Varick. 
 "Don't speak of it! 
 
 "But," he added to himself, "I am 
 much afraid he will." 
 
THE "TRANSFIGURED PAIR 
 
THE 
 
 " I HAD always supposed," said Mrs. 
 
 1 Innis, " that Eleanor Colfax would 
 be married in her habit, with the groom 
 and the ushers in pink, and her brother 
 Willie blowing all he could of the wed- 
 ding-march on a coach-horn. With her 
 figure, she ought to have done it." 
 
 " It certainly was a great opportunity 
 thrown away," said Varick. " A ' hunting 
 wedding ' would have got at least two col- 
 umns in the newspapers, with portraits of 
 the principals, probably life-size,surrounded 
 by free-hand drawings of us all in riding- 
 things. It would have been something to 
 show our grandchildren. I suggested it 
 to Brooky, but he began to talk about his 
 S3 
 
84 GALLOPS 
 
 changed life, his aims, and his duties, and 
 finally pitched into me for wasting my 
 genius upon the stable. He 's the worst 
 case I 've known since my own." 
 
 " Well, you got over yours," said Mrs. 
 Innis, flicking a grain of rice from his 
 sleeve. 
 
 They were interrupted by the footman 
 coming back after Braybrooke's hand-bag. 
 He had dropped it on the veranda while 
 protecting his bride from Willie Colfax's 
 bombardment of rice and old shoes; for 
 this new brother-in-law had played the 
 evil small boy. The man hurried after 
 the carriage with the bag, and the excite- 
 ment died away. 
 
 It had been the most " matrimonial " 
 wedding, as Varick put it, ever seen in 
 Oakdale, which in the circumstances was 
 hardly to have been expected. The bride 
 wore her mother's wedding-dress and her 
 grandmother's veil. The bridesmaids were 
 four school-girl cousins, imported for the 
 occasion, and hurried back to their books 
 with scarcely more than a glimpse of the 
 hunting-men, who had said, " How do you 
 
THE "TRANSFIGURED PAIR" 85 
 
 do?" very pleasantly, and then talked to 
 each other about their horses. Similarly, 
 Braybrooke had impressed four juvenile 
 male relatives, who appeared in their first 
 frock-coats; so that Willie Colfax, whom 
 he could n't help asking to be best man, 
 was the one familiar figure in the wedding- 
 party. " You and I," this youth remarked 
 to the bishop, after the ceremony, " were 
 about the only thoroughbreds in the 
 outfit." 
 
 "You flatter me, William," said the 
 bishop, with a twinkle in his eye. " I 
 suppose I may expect another invitation 
 for a tandem ride." 
 
 Now, the exact propriety with which 
 this wedding had been conducted was the 
 bishop's personal triumph, although, being 
 a discreet man as well as a good, he did 
 not boast about it. After his first visit to 
 Oakdale, the year before, he had done a 
 little earnest missionary work. A long- 
 neglected needlework gild came to life 
 again, the parish debt was paid, and the 
 church got a new organ. The betrothal 
 of Miss Colfax and Braybrooke had offered 
 
86 GALLOPS 
 
 a chance for cultivating in the parish of 
 St. Thomas Equinus a more serious public 
 spirit. His experienced mind had taken 
 due advantage of it, and the seed which 
 he sowed brought forth beyond his ex- 
 pectations. To be sure, as he admitted to 
 himself, it had fallen upon a virgin soil. 
 
 "Jimmy," said Miss Colfax, not long 
 after they were engaged, " we owe a lot 
 to the poor people in the village. I 've 
 made up my mind to carry out the bishop's 
 idea for a boys' club." In consequence, 
 every Thursday evening until they went 
 back to town Braybrooke drove her to the 
 gild-house, and played " Geisha " tunes on 
 the melodeon; and the boys adored her 
 so fervently that they forebore to guy 
 him. The gibes of Varick and Willie 
 Colfax he met with pity for their unre- 
 generate state. He was filled with the 
 idea of improving himself into a great and 
 good man, worthy in a measure of Her, 
 while it seemed to her that the bishop had 
 opened her eyes to a beautiful and en- 
 tirely new world of womanliness. They 
 began to read the first volume of Gibbon 
 
THE "TRANSFIGURED PAIR" 87 
 
 together, and became known to the Oak- 
 dale Hunt as the "Transfigured Pair." 
 
 But her great plan was the wedding- 
 trip. They were to go around the world, 
 skimming the cream of culture in the 
 temples and galleries of Europe, and read- 
 ing the history of foreign peoples on the 
 spot; and were to come back highly edu- 
 cated, and devoted to a new order of 
 things, in which a fortnight's hunting at 
 Oakdale was to be merely an autumnal 
 incident. And so it was that, radiant with 
 love and a satisfying confidence in the 
 future, they had boarded the day express, 
 with their trunks neatly placarded by 
 Varick and Willie Colfax : 
 
 Property of Circumterrestrial Pilgrims of Moral 
 and Educational Research. Handle Gently. 
 
 " Well," she said, as the train began to 
 move, "it 's begun." She settled herself 
 with a sigh of content, and gazed out of 
 the window. " It will be a whole year be- 
 fore we see the river again. Jimmy, I am 
 so happy ! " Braybrooke patted her hand. 
 
 " Look," she said ; " there 's the steeple- 
 
88 GALLOPS 
 
 chase course, and the brushed hurdle 
 where Mrs. Hawkins refused." 
 
 He put his face to the window beside 
 hers. In a moment the glimpse of the 
 hurdle was gone, but the memories of that 
 race-day almost a year before lingered in 
 their minds. They glanced at each other ; 
 it was not necessary to speak. Presently 
 the train swept around a bold curve, and 
 Braybrooke crossed to the other side of 
 the state-room and drew the curtains. He 
 motioned toward the window across the 
 narrow passage. " There 's the pasture 
 lot, and the horses," he said. 
 
 Turned out that very morning was her 
 mare Queenston, and her second horse, the 
 chestnut gelding with the white stockings, 
 and the cobs she drove to her buckboard, 
 and his hunters, Mrs. Hawkins and the rest, 
 cropping the fresh grass which the recent 
 rains had brought. As the train passed 
 they lifted their heads and trotted in a 
 troop toward the fence. 
 
 " Are n't they dears? " she whispered. 
 
 " And look," he said; " do you see the 
 field beyond Morgan's woods? That 's 
 
THE "TRANSFIGURED PAIR" 89 
 
 where we killed last November, and I got 
 the brush I gave you." 
 
 " It 's in my trunk," she said. 
 
 Morgan's woods faded out in the dis- 
 tance, and the country became new and 
 strange. " Good-by, Oakdale," she mur- 
 mured. Braybrooke smiled weakly, and 
 tried to say something, but only gulped. 
 
 They had hit upon the highly original 
 idea of stopping off for a few days at a 
 place so near Oakdale that it would never 
 occur to any one to suspect their where- 
 abouts. Therefore, when they were 
 greeted by a beaming hackman as Mr. 
 and Mrs. Braybrooke, and handed into an 
 aged barouche trimmed with white stream- 
 ers, they were amazed and indignant. Of 
 course they learned afterward that Willie 
 Colfax had bribed the Oakdale station- 
 agent to betray the place to which he had 
 checked their luggage ; but for the time 
 being they could only wonder, and make 
 the best of the embarrassing interest which 
 every one about the hotel took in them. 
 
 There was a lake at this place, and a 
 moon to shine upon it by night ; and they 
 
90 GALLOPS 
 
 passed three agreeable days discovering 
 that never before could two young persons 
 have been so fortunately married. On the 
 fourth day Eleanor wrote to her aunt, Mrs. 
 Alden Adams : " Both of us well and per- 
 fectly happy. We leave this afternoon." 
 They posted this at the station, and set 
 out upon their travels. 
 
 " I am so glad," she remarked, " that 
 we have really started. We 've got so 
 much to do, and so much to see, and so 
 far to go. It is going to be a wonderful 
 trip. And it will be so nice to settle down 
 at once to the kind of life we are always 
 going to lead together — finding out all 
 the greatest ideas that people have had, 
 and trying to think them and live them 
 ourselves." 
 
 She expressed these admirable senti- 
 ments with a certain note of defiance in 
 her tone, as if she expected to be contra- 
 dicted. Braybrooke glanced at her in- 
 quiringly. 
 
 " We shall have about five days of this 
 sleeping-car before we get to Vancouver," 
 he observed. " It 's terribly stuffy." He 
 
THE "TRANSFIGURED PAIR" 91 
 
 fanned himself impatiently with a news- 
 paper. 
 
 " And then," she went on, "we shall 
 have three days before the ship sails, 
 sha'n't we ? We want to see Spokane and 
 Seattle, of course, and run over to Vic- 
 toria; and then — Japan and China! Is n't 
 it splendid?" 
 
 "Yes, splendid," he said; "by the way, 
 we must try to be decent to my uncle 
 when we get to China. It will be a bore, 
 of course. He 's got his yacht there, and 
 he 's running some drag-hounds around 
 Shanghai. He '11 want us to go about 
 with him a lot. Of course we '11 be seeing 
 temples, and buying bronzes and things; 
 but I do think he '11 feel hurt if we don't 
 show him some attention. We might go 
 out with the hounds just once, don't you 
 think?" 
 
 " I don't see any harm in that," she 
 assented. 
 
 " I forgot to tell you," he went on, 
 " that I got a letter from him before we 
 left Oakdale. Kingston, the horse he sent 
 out to breed to native mares, is dead." 
 
92 GALLOPS 
 
 "What a pity!" said the girl. "Poor 
 old Kingston ! He was Queenston's sire." 
 She sighed. " Jimmy, was Kingston by 
 Canadian Prince or Imported Autocrat? 
 Willie and I had a bet about it, and I 've 
 always meant to look it up." 
 
 Braybrooke thought a moment. 
 
 " I forget," he said. He made a move- 
 ment toward his hand-bag, checked him- 
 self, and colored. 
 
 "What 's the matter?" she demanded. 
 
 " Nothing, dear, nothing ; I was only 
 trying to remember." 
 
 "Don't bother," she said; "of course 
 it 's of no importance. Suppose we read 
 some Gibbon; we are awfully behind." 
 
 He fished the third volume out of his 
 bag, found the place, and began to read 
 aloud about Alaric and the sack of Rome. 
 
 Braybrooke read in a solemn, unpunc- 
 tuated voice, and dealt with proper names 
 and difficult words according to his first 
 impressions. The results were sometimes 
 curious, but she never corrected him. 
 When he reached the account of the pil- 
 lage of the splendid palaces she interrupted 
 
THE "TRANSFIGURED PAIR" 93 
 
 him : " We shall see some of those ruins 
 when we get to Rome, sha'n't we? It 's 
 very interesting; but the car shakes so, I 
 am afraid you ought to stop ; you '11 ruin 
 your eyes." 
 
 He shut the book. 
 
 "I wonder," he observed, "if anybody 
 ever read Gibbon on his wedding-trip be- 
 fore?" 
 
 She laughed. 
 
 " I don't care. It 's very improving ; 
 and, really, we must keep up, and do all 
 the things we are going to do." 
 
 " Who said anything about not doing 
 them?" he demanded. 
 
 " Why, no one, of course," she answered, 
 and was silent. "Jimmy," she asked, 
 after a long pause, " when do we get to 
 Greece? " 
 
 " February or March, I think." 
 
 " Well, it has just occurred to me that 
 Mr. Fairfield, the architect, is going to 
 send us a book all about the Parthenon. 
 He says it 's the most wonderful building 
 in the world, although it 's mostly tumbled 
 down." 
 
94 GALLOPS 
 
 " Yes ; I 've heard him speak about it," 
 said Braybrooke. "When he was up at 
 Oakdale, two years ago, he and Captain 
 Forbes got talking about the horses on the 
 frieze. Forbes says they must have been 
 the greatest weight-carriers for their inches 
 that the world has ever seen. Why, they 
 only stood at most fourteen-one, and those 
 fellows in the heavy cavalry, with their 
 gear, averaged one hundred and ninety, 
 anyway." 
 
 " They must have been a strain of 
 Arab," she remarked. " It 's always 
 interested me to think how they bred up 
 our big thoroughbred from such little 
 stock. And it was n't very long ago, 
 either. When was the Godolphin Arab 
 brought to England?" 
 
 " I don't believe I remember," he an- 
 swered; "but — " He started toward the 
 hand-bag again, and stopped shamefacedly. 
 
 " Jimmy," she asked sharply, " what 's 
 in that bag? Get it!" 
 
 He opened the satchel, and handed her 
 a volume. It was a part of the Stud-book. 
 She looked at him seriously. 
 
THE "TRANSFIGURED PAIR" 95 
 
 " I did n't know, you see," he said 
 apologetically ; " I thought we might need 
 it, so I put it in along with the Gibbon. 
 It makes the bag pretty heavy." 
 
 She turned her face to the window, and 
 for a long time they sat in silence. 
 
 " Railway traveling is fearfully dull," 
 he said at length. " Can't keep clean ; 
 can't exercise. I 'm glad it 's only five 
 days to the coast." 
 
 She made no comment. 
 
 " Do you feel all right, dear? " he asked 
 anxiously. "You 're not ill?" 
 
 " I 'm very well," she answered, with- 
 out looking at him. There was another 
 long pause. 
 
 " How would some lunch go? " he sug- 
 gested timidly. " I 'm nearly starved." 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 " I 'm not hungry a bit," she said 
 gently; "but you get something." 
 
 He opened the basket, and tried some 
 olives and a cold woodcock; but his ap- 
 petite had vanished and he shut the hamper 
 again. She seemed not to want to talk, 
 and he fell to watching her as she gazed 
 
96 GALLOPS 
 
 out of the car window. He had never 
 seen her so quiet and subdued before. 
 There was a sad, absorbed look in her face. 
 It made her very beautiful, but it troubled 
 him. 
 
 Was it usual for brides to act in this 
 way on their wedding- trip? he asked him- 
 self. Did n't she love him, after all ? Was 
 she beginning to feel that she had made 
 a mistake? He wanted to speak to her, 
 and have the matter explained, but he was 
 afraid ; so he sat, miserable and full of 
 fears, watching now her, now the passing 
 landscape, until the fields and woods began 
 to weave themselves into a sort of day- 
 dream, and he almost forgot that he was 
 on his wedding-trip, bound for the ends 
 of the earth. 
 
 The autumn afternoon wore away, and 
 still they rode on in silence. Once she 
 said : " Is n't it beautiful ? There 's no 
 State so beautiful as New York. It will 
 be a year before we see it again." 
 
 Toward dusk they entered a valley that 
 suggested the Oakdale country. It was a 
 region of good rail fences, with here and 
 
THE "TRANSFIGURED PAIR" 97 
 
 there a line of boards, and scarcely a 
 strand of wire. There were broad bot- 
 tom-lands, and beyond these a sky-line of 
 gently rolling heights. From time to time 
 a patch of blue on the flats showed where 
 the river curved. The soft stretches of 
 stubble-field, the reds and yellows of the 
 woods on the distant hills, the long, dim 
 shadows of the elms in the pasture lots, 
 the sunshine fading into twilight — it was 
 all like the end of an October hunting-day. 
 He could almost hear the far-away outcry 
 of the hounds; he almost expected to see 
 them break from the next piece of woods. 
 The clicking of the wheels began to run 
 into the rhythm of a galloping horse and he 
 imagined himself rating along on Mrs. 
 Hawkins. He scanned the country as 
 the next covert came into view, and was 
 wondering what direction the fox would 
 probably take, when he heard Her sigh. 
 He glanced up apprehensively, and 
 watched her. Then he almost laughed 
 outright. She too was studying the fences, 
 following them with her eyes till they 
 passed out of view. A wave of great 
 7 
 
98 GALLOPS 
 
 gladness swept over him. He knew now 
 where her thoughts were. A great many- 
 plans came into his brain, and suddenly 
 he reached a mighty determination. He 
 watched her intently, chuckling to himself 
 over the idea which had taken possession 
 of him. All at once he heard her murmur, 
 unaware that he could hear: 
 
 "That would be my place — the top rail 
 would break." 
 
 " I suppose she 's galloping her mare," 
 he thought, and chuckled again. " Yes, 
 dear," he said softly; "only Queenston 
 would n't hit it." 
 
 She started, and colored guiltily. 
 "You 've been listening!" she exclaimed, 
 and the tears stood in her eyes. " I don't 
 love you as I ought," she said. " I thought I 
 had put all those things away. But I 've 
 been thinking about Queenston and Oak- 
 dale, and the run they '11 have to-morrow. 
 I 've got to tell you." She began to cry, 
 and her head sank upon his shoulder. 
 
 " There, there ! " he said gently. " I 've 
 got something to tell you, too. We 're going 
 back to Oakdale, and we are going to-night. " 
 
THE "TRANSFIGURED PAIR" 99 
 
 The weeping stopped. " Oh, Jimmy ! " 
 she gasped. " But we can't!" 
 
 " There are all kinds of people in the 
 world," he went on, "and I guess we had 
 better be our own kind. I fell in love with 
 you when you were jumping the red gate 
 out of the Four Oaks pasture, and it was 
 a steeplechase that helped me out with 
 you. Now, there '11 be plenty of charity, 
 and all that, at Oakdale, and we can read 
 books and things evenings. But this 
 globe-trotting is n't our distance. Be- 
 sides, I am afraid I shall never make a 
 good rater at culture; and, after all, it 
 really is something to know a good horse. 
 Nell, Oakdale is the place for us." 
 
 "But all we 've planned out!" she 
 sobbed. 
 
 " Let 's own up we 've drawn blank," 
 he said. " Now, see here. The horses 
 were only turned out four days ago, and 
 they '11 be fit to go to-morrow. A wire 
 to-night will bring 'em up, and we will be 
 there in time to ride. What do you say 
 about it?" 
 
 She smiled through her tears. 
 
ioo GALLOPS 
 
 " I was thinking of that, too," she said. 
 
 " It 's the Deep Gully woods, and they 
 will be sure to find." 
 
 Then Braybrooke sent for the con- 
 ductor, and wrote a telegram three pages 
 long. The conductor told him that the 
 next stop was a very good place to dine, 
 and that they could catch the up-train to 
 Oakdale there at nine-forty. 
 
 "Then," said Braybrooke, "we get out 
 of this in exactly half an hour." 
 
 His wife's maid was of the discreet 
 order and raised no question, even with 
 her eyes, when he asked her to get the 
 hand-luggage ready as quickly as she 
 could. Braybrooke was grateful for this. 
 It is not pleasant to have even your wife's 
 maid laugh in her sleeve when you start 
 around the world and change your mind 
 before you get three hundred miles. His 
 spirits rose, and he was quite as perfectly 
 happy as the bridegrooms of story-books 
 when he led her down the car as the train 
 drew into the station. He heard some 
 very nice-looking people observe that the 
 town they had come to was a funny place 
 
THE "TRANSFIGURED PAIR" 101 
 
 for a honeymoon, but he did not even 
 blush. On the platform his face became 
 grave. He turned to her. 
 
 "It 's just occurred to me," he said; 
 " they will guy us the worst way at the 
 meet to-morrow. Do you want to change 
 your mind?" 
 
 She pressed his hand, and with a happy 
 look shook her head. 
 
 " But of course you will let me follow 
 you ? " she asked. " You won't be always 
 telling me to keep back?" 
 
 He paused irresolutely on the step. 
 He had not thought of that, and it meant 
 a great deal — no more five-foot "larking," 
 no more chancing it over wire. It meant 
 a lifetime of sober, decorous jumping. 
 Then he looked at her. 
 
 " What I jump, you shall too," he said ; 
 and stepped down to offer her his hand. 
 
THE POPULARITY OF TOMPKINS 
 
VI 
 
 THE POPULARITY OF TOMPKINS 
 
 MY dearest Mother," wrote Mr. Fred- 
 erick Tompkins, when he had been 
 at Oakdale a week : " The Varicks are aw- 
 fully kind. They have a very good house, 
 which Mrs. Innis — who is Mrs. Varick's 
 sister, you know — seems to have a good 
 deal to say about. I suppose this accounts 
 for my being made welcome, although I 
 am only her guest, and did not know any 
 one else in the family. This is the great- 
 est place I ever struck. I wish the gov- 
 ernor would get a house here. I could 
 run it, and get some of the men in our 
 class to come up and stop with me, now 
 that we are through college. You could 
 105 
 
106 GALLOPS 
 
 come up for the steeplechases, and give a 
 hunt ball. How does the idea hit you ? 
 
 " Our Western hospitality is n't a 
 marker on what they do for one here. I 
 have been dined and lunched and furnished 
 with horses in a way that is really won- 
 derful, considering that I am a stranger. 
 There is nothing much in the way of girls, 
 but there is the smoothest lot of men I 
 ever met. Mrs. Innis introduced me to 
 the best of them, and I suppose they have 
 showed me attention on her account. 
 Monday morning, after I got here, there 
 was a hunt, — not shooting, you know, — 
 and Mr. Varick let me ride a horse called 
 Sir Roger. He says that as perfect a type 
 of hunter as this one is dirt-cheap at fifteen 
 hundred, and I can well believe it. I 
 just let him go, and was right in it from 
 the start. Of course I had never hunted 
 before — only after jack-rabbits at home, 
 where there is no jumping; but Mrs. Innis 
 told me it was n't necessary to tell any one 
 this, and that I would soon get the trick. 
 She said just to let the horse alone and 
 he 'd do the rest, and he did. It was the 
 
THE POPULARITY OF TOMPKINS 107 
 
 greatest sensation I ever had in my whole 
 life. Varick said that I had ridden uncom- 
 monly well, and that the horse was just 
 suited to me. Of course I have always 
 ridden out home with a curb and a loose 
 rein, so I did n't bother his head, and let 
 him pick his own jumping. Mrs. Innis 
 said this was the best way to do with a 
 well-schooled horse, unless you were a 
 crack and had really good hands. She 
 says that most men get falls because they 
 think they know how to ' lift ' their horses 
 and ' foot ' them at their fences. It is 
 wonderful how much she has picked up 
 about all this sort of thing, because she 
 does n't ride, and never talks horse the 
 way some of the other women do. She 
 also suggested that I should take whatever 
 was said about hunting as a matter of 
 course, which was clearly good advice. 
 Mrs. Innis is a very charming woman. 
 Monday she introduced me to a man named 
 Galloway, and he asked me to come over 
 to lunch on Tuesday and look at his string. 
 He also offered me a mount for Wednes- 
 day. Varick told me I had better take it, 
 
108 GALLOPS 
 
 as Sir Roger was pretty tired and had cut 
 his frog. He was foolish once, and jumped 
 on a pile of stones. 
 
 " Wednesday, on Galloway's mare 
 Vixen, I had an immense ride. She got 
 away from me once and jumped three 
 strands of barbed wire, and I beat the 
 whole field. Everybody is talking about 
 it, and I am getting the reputation of 
 being a hard goer. Galloway said that 
 the price of that horse ought to go up 
 five hundred after such a performance, 
 but he 's going to keep it at a thousand. 
 If you hear of anybody in Washington 
 who is looking for a regular clipper, tell 
 him about Vixen ; I should like to do Gal- 
 loway a good turn. 
 
 " There is a fellow up here called Willie 
 Colfax, whose cousin was in college with 
 me. He has been very civil, and came 
 over and got me Thursday morning, and 
 took me for a ride 'cross country on a 
 horse called Lorelei. They have a very 
 good way here of sometimes bandaging a 
 horse's legs to protect them from the 
 thistles. Colfax had bandages on Lorelei. 
 
THE POPULARITY OF TOMPKINS 109 
 
 He said she is very thin-skinned on ac- 
 count of her breeding. It is a humane 
 custom, don't you think? Lorelei jumped 
 like a bird. She is the greatest bargain I 
 have seen yet, and I almost wish I was 
 buying horses. Colfax will let her go for 
 five hundred; at least, I inferred so from 
 some remarks he let drop. If Sis wants a 
 good hack that can jump, the governor 
 ought to consider this mare. Colfax was 
 very flattering, and said he had never seen 
 Lorelei go so well, and that it needed a 
 hard goer to do her justice. You ought 
 to be proud of your son! To-day (Fri- 
 day) I lunched at the club with Captain 
 Forbes, and looked over his string after- 
 ward. He has three very likely horses 
 that he is willing to let go, as he has more 
 than he needs. He is going to mount me 
 to-morrow. There are a number of men 
 here who have more horses than they 
 need, and are willing to sell. They have 
 been very kind in offering me mounts. I 
 suppose they are glad to have them exer- 
 cised. By the way, several people have 
 spoken about the governor's starting fox- 
 
no GALLOPS 
 
 hunting out on the coast. He 'd look 
 queer riding to hounds, but it is a very 
 captivating idea. Sound him about it. 
 
 " I have wired your New York florist 
 to send four dozen American Beauties to 
 Mrs. Varick, and the same to Mrs. Innis. 
 I mention this lest I should forget to speak 
 about it, and you should think the bill 
 wrong. This is a very long letter, and 
 makes up for some short ones. Love to 
 Father and Sis. 
 
 " Your aff. son, 
 
 " Frederick Tompkins." 
 
 When Mrs. Innis's friends asked her how 
 it was that she had annexed this scion of 
 the West, she replied that she was laying 
 up treasure with the mammon of the Occi- 
 dent, and, moreover, that he was a very 
 nice boy and admired her. She dis- 
 covered him in Washington, where Sena- 
 tor Tompkins had established his family 
 for the winter. Now, young Tompkins 
 was a nice boy, and some day would be 
 rich, and there were several mamas in 
 Washington who considered Mrs. Innis's 
 interest in him not less than shameful. 
 
THE POPULARITY OF TOMPKINS in 
 
 Tompkins sent his letter off to the post, 
 and presented himself in the drawing-room 
 to take tea with Mrs. Innis. He found 
 Captain Forbes there. 
 
 " Hello ! " said Forbes. " I was hacking 
 over this way, and dropped in to see 
 whether you were going to ride Rajah to- 
 morrow. I understood you to say you 
 would; but Varick said something about 
 mounting you on a four-year-old of his." 
 
 "Well," said Tompkins, "I had n't 
 heard anything about the four-year-old. 
 Of course, as I 'm stopping here, I ought 
 to ride Varick's horse for him if he wants 
 me to; but I should like very much to 
 have a go with the Rajah." 
 
 "All right," said Forbes; "I '11 see 
 Varick. Where is he?" 
 
 " In the smoking-room, I think," said 
 Mrs. Innis. 
 
 The captain found Varick in a very bad 
 temper, making up his stable accounts. 
 
 "Look here," said he; "it 's low down 
 of you, Varick, to keep this Tompkins chap 
 all to yourself. He 's a mighty attractive 
 little chap, and he has a good eye for a 
 horse, and I want him to ride some good 
 
112 GALLOPS 
 
 ones, so I 've offered him the Rajah. He 
 says you have n't spoken to him yet about 
 mounting him on that skate four-year-old, 
 and he wants to ride the Rajah, but he 's 
 afraid of offending you." 
 
 " Oh, hang him!" exclaimed Varick; 
 " let him ride anything you say. This 
 desperate altruism on your part, however, 
 is something new. Get out of here, 
 Forbes; I 've been swindled on my hay." 
 
 Forbes went back, and told Tompkins 
 it was all right about Rajah, and then 
 rode away. 
 
 " Mrs. Innis," said Tompkins, after the 
 captain had departed, " I 've been having 
 a great time this week. There is the best 
 crowd of men here I ever saw. That 
 fellow Forbes is a brick. There are n't 
 many men who would lend their hunters 
 to a stranger the way he 's done." 
 
 " That 's so," said Mrs. Innis, with a 
 smile ; " but then, Frederick, you are a 
 very nice young man." He had asked 
 her to call him Frederick. 
 
 "Oh, pshaw!" said Tompkins, and 
 colored. "They 're civil to me because 
 
THE POPULARITY OF TOMPKINS 113 
 
 I am your friend, that 's all; they adore 
 you." 
 
 " I wish I could believe that," said Mrs. 
 Innis ; " but I am sure it is n't so. I had 
 Cordillas up here, and they were really 
 horrid to him. But I don't suppose I 
 ought to speak about that story, since 
 you are going back to Washington." 
 
 Tompkins would have liked to hear that 
 story, but he did n't say so; he held it 
 unmasculine to be curious. 
 
 " By the way," asked Mrs. Innis, " have 
 they said anything to you about starting 
 a hunt out on the Pacific? " 
 
 "Why, yes," said Tompkins; "two or 
 three of them have spoken about it. I 
 think it would be a great thing, but I 'm 
 afraid the governor would n't vote for it. 
 You see, it might hurt him politically." 
 
 " Did you tell any one that? " she asked. 
 
 "No," said Tompkins; "I did n't say 
 much about it. I thought I would sound 
 the old gentleman first. It might carry, 
 after all." 
 
 " That 's so," said Mrs. Innis. Tompkins 
 stooped to pick up her handkerchief, and 
 
ii 4 GALLOPS 
 
 she smiled in a quiet little way that seemed 
 quite for her own edification. The man 
 who thought that he knew Mrs. Innis best 
 called that smile her " glad-i-at-or smile," 
 because it expressed what the cat said after 
 she had eaten the canary. When he ob- 
 served that smile he was always uneasy 
 till he was quite sure that the victim was 
 some other man. 
 
 The next morning Tompkins hunted 
 Rajah, and had the time of his life. The 
 Rajah was an old steeplechaser with no 
 particular mouth, and he rushed his jumps 
 in a way that made mature persons who 
 rode him wish to be at home in bed. 
 Tompkins let him go, and the Hunt held 
 back and gave him room. There is a 
 saying that it takes seven croppers to 
 make a horseman. Tompkins had n't had 
 his first one yet, and so there was no use 
 in giving him advice. 
 
 " Confound that fellow Tompkins ! " said 
 the M. F. H. " He 's been riding over my 
 hounds all the morning. Forbes, tell him, 
 if he can't keep that blooming runaway of 
 yours back, to go home." 
 
THE POPULARITY OF TOMPKINS 115 
 
 Forbes cast an injured look at the M. F. 
 H., and counseled Tompkins to modera- 
 tion. But when the hounds found, they 
 went off at a very fast clip, and then 
 Tompkins was in his glory. He led the 
 field for seven miles, turning neither to 
 right nor to left, and he was with the 
 pack at the kill before even the huntsman. 
 When the M. F. H. presented him with the 
 brush it seemed that all the joy of the 
 world was in his cup. He resolved that 
 the governor certainly should take a place 
 at Oakdale, and that he would hunt for- 
 ever after. It was only natural, therefore, 
 that an unmanly lump should rise into his 
 throat when he read the telegram which 
 was waiting for him when he got back to 
 the Varicks' that afternoon. It said : 
 
 Letter received. You come home on first 
 train. Father. 
 
 That night, after dinner, Varick went to 
 the club, and found a group of men play- 
 ing pool. 
 
 " Hello ! " said Forbes. " While I think 
 
n6 GALLOPS 
 
 of it, tell Tompkins — will you ? — that I 'm 
 afraid the Rajah won't be fit to go on 
 Monday. The fact is (of course you need 
 n't say anything about it), his old tendon 
 is as big as my wrist. The horse went 
 marvelously. Really, though, that boy is 
 a shocking pounder." 
 
 " I should say he was!" exclaimed Gal- 
 loway. " Vixen threw a curb with him, 
 and he rode so much out of Lorelei, just 
 galloping her 'cross lots, that Willie has 
 had to fire her again and turn her out." 
 
 " Really ? " said Varick. " Well, he used 
 up Sir Roger, too — jumped him on a pile 
 of stones and cut his frog. But, I say, 
 Forbes," he added, " Tompkins has gone ; 
 so it won't matter about the Rajah on 
 Monday." 
 
 " Gone?" repeated Forbes. The other 
 men regarded Varick incredulously. 
 
 " Yes ; Washington on the eight- thirty." 
 
 "Well," said Forbes, "he 's coming 
 back, is n't he? " 
 
 " Not that I know of," said Varick. 
 
 "I guess he is, though," said Forbes. 
 " The fact is, you see, I was told, rather in 
 
THE POPULARITY OF TOMPKINS 117 
 
 confidence, that he came up here to buy a 
 string of hunters for his father. I under- 
 stand that the old gentleman is going to 
 run a pack of drag-hounds somewhere out 
 West." 
 
 Colfax, Galloway, and Varick looked 
 curiously at Forbes, and then at one 
 another. 
 
 " I got the same f steer,' " blurted out 
 Galloway; then Willie Colfax nodded, 
 signifying that it had likewise been im- 
 parted to him. 
 
 " That 's very funny," said Varick ; " for 
 I heard something of the same sort myself. 
 Forbes, do you mind saying whether 
 Tompkins himself told you that?" 
 
 " No," said Forbes ; " Tompkins did n't." 
 
 " Then who was it? " demanded Varick. 
 
 " I don't know that I ought to tell," he 
 answered ; "though I don't suppose there 's 
 any harm in it. You see, I was n't actu- 
 ally told that Tompkins was going to buy, 
 but it was put to me in such a way that I 
 got that impression. I was asked as a per- 
 sonal favor not to sell him anything that 
 was n't the best — well — by Mrs. Innis." 
 
n8 GALLOPS 
 
 Varick gave forth a long, low whistle, 
 and in the silence that followed Galloway 
 and Colfax moved thoughtfully toward 
 different parts of the wall, and each 
 pressed an electric button. 
 
 " I am afraid," said Varick, slowly, 
 " that we have been ' up against it.' Ever 
 since that Spanish chap rode old Thomas 
 Dooley, and thought he was up on Em- 
 peror, my sister-in-law has been ' laying 
 low ' with Brother Rabbit. She won't be- 
 lieve that we lament the mistake." 
 
 When Forbes mentioned Mrs. Innis, the 
 M. F. H., who had been practising billiard 
 shots at the next table till his turn should 
 come around, threw down his cue, and 
 appeared to be choked by his emotions. 
 A great light had struck him. 
 
 "This is almost too much!" he sighed. 
 " Coming home this afternoon, for three 
 miles Tompkins talked to me about the 
 whole-souled generosity of the men of this 
 Hunt — men who seemed to find delight in 
 pursuing him with attentions and offers of 
 horses. ' Why, Mr. Crawford,' said he, ' I 
 never saw such a place ! I believe I could 
 
THE POPULARITY OF TOMPKINS 119 
 
 stay here a month, and be mounted three 
 times a week!' " 
 
 Just then the sound of women's voices 
 rose in the hall. A party had come in for 
 supper. 
 
 "Hello!" said the M. F. H., listening; 
 " Mrs. Innis is out there now. This is too 
 good to keep; I 've got to tell her." He 
 went to the door. It was a family sort of 
 club, and ladies often went into the bil- 
 liard-room. 
 
 " Don't you want to come in here and 
 exult?" he said. " I 'm not equal to the 
 whole thing myself; and besides, it 's your 
 party." 
 
 Mrs. Innis turned, and hesitated. " What 's 
 that? "she asked. 
 
 " Why, you have caused the heathen to 
 rage," exclaimed the M. F. H., " and they 
 are making themselves very amusing 
 about some horses they did n't sell." 
 
 "Exult?" she replied. "Horses they 
 did n't sell? What on earth are you talk- 
 ing about? " 
 
 The M. F. H. took a long breath, like 
 a man who gets a bucket of cold water 
 
120 GALLOPS 
 
 thrown on him. Then he became matter- 
 of-fact and mirthless. He knew Mrs. Innis 
 pretty well. 
 
 " Oh, nothing much," he said ; " just 
 any old thing. By the way, next week I 
 expect to have two chaps stopping with 
 me, who are coming on to look about for 
 hunters; and I shall be awfully busy just 
 then, because Mrs. Crawford is going to 
 have a lot of girls at the house. Can't 
 you help me show 'em about a bit?" 
 
 Mrs. Innis looked at the M. F. H. as 
 though she were wondering whether she 
 could conscientiously comply. 
 
 " Why, yes," she answered ; " I shall be 
 glad to help you in any way I can." 
 
 " Well, they won't be much trouble," 
 the M. F. H. added. " Men who are buy- 
 ing horses always seem to be popular 
 up here. If you 've never noticed it, I '11 
 make you a present of the idea." 
 
 "You are very good," replied Mrs. 
 Innis. " It is certainly a very ingenious 
 idea. But you are always having inge- 
 nious ideas ; you have an ingenious mind." 
 
 The M. F. H. bowed. 
 
THE POPULARITY OF TOMPKINS 121 
 
 " Yes. The idea 's ingenious enough ; 
 only there 's the very deuce to pay if they 
 don't buy, after all. Now take the case 
 of your friend Tompkins. It 's rather 
 serious. There are three or four chaps in 
 here who are talking of having him ar- 
 rested for fraud — " 
 
 "Why, Mr. Crawford!" exclaimed Mrs. 
 Innis, incredulously ; " you don't tell me 
 that any one thought Mr. Tompkins came 
 here to buy horses? He came here to 
 see me. Of course, before he arrived, I 
 thought it possible that he might want to 
 pick up a hunter or so, and I asked the 
 men I knew not to sell him anything that 
 was n't the best. But, dear me ! the day 
 he arrived he told me that his father had 
 forbidden his buying horses of any kind, 
 and so I never bothered about the matter 
 again; it quite went out of my head." 
 Then she looked at the M. F. H. with the 
 faintest gleam in her eyes. " Please take 
 this thing," she added. 
 
 He took her wrap and put it on a chair. 
 " Why, of course," he said ; " nothing could 
 be more natural." 
 
122 GALLOPS 
 
 They could hear all this from the bil- 
 liard-room. 
 
 " Crawford," called Varick, " are you 
 going to play pool, or do you wish me to 
 telephone for Mrs. Crawford?" 
 
 " Coming at once," replied the M. F. H. 
 
 " Varick," growled Galloway, who was 
 thinking of Vixen's curb, " let 's drop Mr. 
 Tompkins and his popularity. It *s your 
 shot — hurry up and play!" 
 
CHALMERS'S GOLD PIECE 
 
VII 
 
 CHALMERS'S GOLD PIECE 
 
 THERE goes a good chap," said the 
 M. F. H., nodding toward Chalmers. 
 The hunting Earl turned in the saddle, 
 and looked. He was jogging alongside 
 of the M. F. H., who was taking him into 
 covert with the hounds. (This was only 
 the proper courtesy to extend to so great 
 a fox-hunter.) " He 's back this morning 
 from the Rockies," the M. F. H. added; 
 " I 'd like to have you know him." 
 
 " Beg pardon," observed the Earl, " but 
 is n't he rather queerly turned out? " 
 
 The M. F. H., who was sounding his 
 horn, laughed, and spoiled his note. 
 
 " Those are pretty awful riding-things. 
 They belong to his groom." 
 125 
 
126 GALLOPS 
 
 " Not very well off — bankrupt or some- 
 thing?" suggested the Earl. 
 
 " Thunder, no! " exclaimed the M. F. H. 
 " He 's a terrible millionaire. You see, he 
 got back a day sooner than he expected, 
 and they had n't brought his things down 
 from town. He did n't have time to bor- 
 row any breeches, and he was n't going to 
 miss a run, so he put on the cords belong- 
 ing to his man's new livery, and an old 
 jacket. They are all running him about 
 it, for he 's usually rather smart. I dare 
 say you 've seen his yacht, the Indepen- 
 dence Day, at Cannes. He prowls all over 
 the place after big game, and he 's one of 
 the best men in America to hounds." 
 
 "Very interesting indeed," said the 
 Earl. " I should like to meet him." 
 
 The M. F. H. looked back and tried to 
 catch Chalmers's eye; but Chalmers was 
 watching a young woman coming over a 
 big panel of rails in a slashing way one 
 does n't often see. It impressed him, and 
 he rode over to Varick, who was dis- 
 mounted tightening his girths, and asked 
 him who the strange girl was. 
 
CHALMERS'S GOLD PIECE 127 
 
 " Did n't notice her/' said Varick ; " but 
 there are several new ones here just now. 
 There 's a professional from some Lon- 
 don riding-school, looking about for high 
 jumpers. Colfax is trying to sell her 
 Lorelei at a low price and no guaranty. 
 Then there 's a Miss Crackenthorpe, a 
 Philadelphia girl, stopping with the Gallo- 
 ways; and — " He stopped abruptly, and 
 listened. Somebody was calling in the 
 distance. It was indistinct at first; but 
 then the breeze swelled lazily and brought 
 a faint " Gone away ! Gone away ! " from 
 the whip on the farther side of the covert. 
 A moment later the pack picked up the 
 hot scent, and set up a terrific yeow- 
 yeowing. 
 
 " Hullo, they are off ! " Varick exclaimed, 
 and, mounting hastily, he galloped after 
 the troop of excited men and horses. 
 
 An hour later — they had lost that fox, 
 and were after a second one — Chalmers 
 emerged from a big wood-lot, and looked 
 about him for signs of the Hunt. There 
 was no one in sight. It is not pleasant to 
 
128 GALLOPS 
 
 find one's self a minority of one on the 
 question of inferring a fox's ultimate line 
 from his circlings in the impracticable 
 underbrush — unless, of course, one hap- 
 pens to be right, and has hounds, fox, and 
 everything to himself, in which case he 
 has an exclusive smoking-room story for- 
 ever after. But Chalmers had neither 
 quarry nor pack. 
 
 "Why, oh, why," he murmured plain- 
 tively, " do I never hit it right?" He 
 strained his ears for the sound of the 
 hounds; but there was only the rustle of 
 the stray leaves that bobbed across the 
 stubble on the wind. The region was 
 unfamiliar and, in the desolate stillness of 
 a November afternoon, unprepossessing. 
 
 " That wretched fox certainly has 
 doubled back," he said to himself. " I 'm 
 out of it, and I 'm afraid I 'm lost, to 
 boot." He felt hungry, and inspected a 
 lone and crumpled sandwich; but he 
 reflected that he would doubtless be hun- 
 grier later on, so he put it away. He was 
 searching the dull horizon for the sun, 
 from which to get his bearings, when he 
 
CHALMERS'S GOLD PIECE 129 
 
 was startled by the crash of breaking 
 rails. 
 
 He glanced around, and saw a woman 
 coming a most appalling cropper over the 
 fence between him and the wood-lot. The 
 horse scrambled to its feet, trailing its 
 rider head down, and broke into a gallop. 
 The skirt of her habit was hooked over one 
 of the pommels. It all happened as swiftly 
 and inevitably as things happen in a bad 
 dream. It sickened him, but the instant 
 the horse started he had started after it. 
 There was no time to follow the runaway 
 and pull him up, for at any moment the 
 woman might swing under his hoofs, or be 
 dashed against a stone. 
 
 It came to Chalmers that the thing 
 to do was to " cross." This was an 
 experience which he had several times 
 unintentionally provoked at polo. After 
 his first thorough collision he came to 
 before the match was over, and a famous 
 No. 2, who was looking on, bent over 
 his stretcher. " Next time when you 
 see there has got to be a smash," he 
 said, " don't let the other fellow hit you 
 
i 3 o GALLOPS 
 
 behind the saddle. It 's just as well to let 
 him have the spill." This means that a 
 pony run down forward of the girths is not 
 so likely to be thrown off his hind legs, 
 and has a chance of collecting himself 
 before he goes completely over. Chal- 
 mers remembered this. He had only 
 fifty yards to ride, and he calculated his 
 pace correctly. The bewildered horse 
 which he was attempting to head off 
 made no attempt to swerve, and they met 
 fairly at right angles. Chalmers was con- 
 scious of a stunning shock and of being in 
 a heap with two horses. He wondered 
 where the woman was. As he got up 
 he saw that she had been thrown clear 
 and was lying motionless. A drop of 
 blood was gathering from a scratch on her 
 cheek. He noticed it hang an instant, and 
 then trail down across her face. He was 
 sure that she was dead. There was a 
 numb feeling in his left shoulder, and 
 mechanically he changed the bridle to his 
 right hand. For a moment he stood 
 dazed and silent. The woman's horse 
 picked itself up and went off, and Chal- 
 
CHALMERS'S GOLD PIECE 131 
 
 mers still stood, wondering exactly what 
 had happened. Then the woman sat up, 
 and his senses came to him. 
 
 "Are you much hurt?" he gasped. 
 His knees felt weak, and he leaned against 
 his horse. 
 
 " No," said the girl ; " I think I 'm only 
 shaken up." 
 
 Chalmers watched her anxiously. It 
 was the girl he had noticed taking the 
 fence before the run began. " Yes ; it 's 
 the riding-mistress," he said to himself. 
 It had just occurred to him that he had 
 once met the Philadelphia girl whom 
 Varick had mentioned, and that she was 
 quite a different person. Besides, this girl 
 spoke with a markedly English intonation. 
 She began to turn her head first one way 
 and then the other, as if she were making 
 sure it was really there. 
 
 " I 'm afraid you 've hurt your neck," 
 he said. " Have you any pain — down 
 your back? " 
 
 "No," she answered weakly; "but I 
 can't get all those hoofs out of my eyes. 
 It seems as if they were coming down 
 
132 GALLOPS 
 
 smash! They 're worse than I ever had 
 before." 
 
 Chalmers had experienced the hoof 
 phenomenon himself, and he knew that it 
 made the first moments after a bad cropper 
 extremely bewildering. 
 
 " Lie down a minute," he suggested. 
 
 She collapsed miserably into a heap, and 
 began to cry softly. Chalmers turned his 
 head away, and wondered what he ought 
 to do. For a man of his age he had been 
 confronted with some exceptionally trying 
 situations, but with nothing upon this 
 order. Besides, this was inwardly dis- 
 tressing. It would have been easier if 
 she had sniffled and " taken on " hysteri- 
 cally ; but she wept in the subdued manner 
 of utter wretchedness. It was very pa- 
 thetic. 
 
 " You poor little thing! " Chalmers mur- 
 mured. That she was not little, but rather 
 tall, with a classic type of face and a won- 
 derful skin, back into which the pink was 
 beginning to find its way, did not abate 
 the strain upon his feelings. He let his 
 eyes rest on her for a moment. 
 
CHALMERS'S GOLD PIECE 133 
 
 " It 's inhuman to make a woman like 
 that ride for her living," he muttered. 
 " It 's devilish!" His ideas about women 
 in the hunting-field underwent a rapid 
 revision, as is apt to be the case with men 
 who have just seen their first bad side- 
 saddle spill. " And it 's only a question 
 of time before she '11 be killed. By Jove, 
 she simply must n't!" Now Chalmers 
 meant this to be positive and final, for 
 at that moment an idea struck him, which 
 he hastily elaborated. 
 
 It was a simple solution of the matter. 
 Chalmers had a sister whose fad was her 
 hackney farm and her harness-horses. 
 She drove four, and tandem, and all other 
 possible ways ; but she thought poorly of 
 riding. She needed a confidential assis- 
 tant (she had told Chalmers that), but a 
 difficulty had confronted her in the pre- 
 vailing sex of horse experts. This fixed 
 it. He would wire Elizabeth; Elizabeth 
 would wire Miss What's-her-name (he 
 would find that out when he was properly 
 presented) to New York, and the message 
 would be repeated to Oakdale, as if Eliza- 
 
134 GALLOPS 
 
 beth did n't know she was there. Then, 
 by an odd coincidence, Miss Chalmers 
 would turn out to be his sister, and the 
 girl's risks of sudden death thenceforth 
 would be limited to smashed vehicles and 
 that class of accidents from which she 
 would have almost the same chance of 
 escape as a man. Presently the girl 
 stopped crying, and Chalmers left off the 
 works of his imagination with a smile. It 
 was diverting to arrange matters for a 
 person whom one did n't know. She 
 lifted her head. 
 
 " Will you give me your flask?" she 
 asked. " I 'm still a bit faint." 
 
 All Chalmers's things were on their way 
 from town, and he had n't a flask with him. 
 
 " I 'm very sorry," he began awkwardly. 
 
 She sat up, and looked him over from 
 head to toe with a swift glance. 
 
 " I beg your pardon," she interrupted. 
 " I did n't think. I shall be quite well 
 directly." She rose to her feet, leaving 
 Chalmers somewhat mystified. 
 
 "Does your head trouble you?" he 
 asked. 
 
CHALMERS'S GOLD PIECE 135 
 
 "No," she answered; "I really feel 
 much better. But will you kindly explain 
 to me how you came to be here? I 
 thought I was jumping into an empty 
 meadow." 
 
 Chalmers briefly explained that he had 
 lost the hounds, and happened to be 
 standing at one side when she fell, and 
 afterward stopped the horse. The girl 
 thought a moment. 
 
 " But your horse was down on his 
 knees?" she said inquiringly. "I re- 
 member that." 
 
 " Well," answered Chalmers, " there was 
 a bit of a collision." 
 
 " I think I understand," she answered. 
 "That was a very brave thing to do!" 
 Her eyes turned from his face, and Chal- 
 mers was somehow impressed for a mo- 
 ment that he was clad in ill-fitting cord 
 breeches. Then she repeated impulsively, 
 " A very brave thing to do ! " He felt the 
 red coming into his face. 
 
 "Nonsense!" he exclaimed. "The 
 question is, How are we going to get 
 home?" He looked after the runaway 
 
136 GALLOPS 
 
 horse. It was already in the field beyond. 
 They watched it take the fence and disap- 
 pear over the brow of a hill. 
 
 " Well, he 's gone," said Chalmers. He 
 glanced at his own horse with the man's 
 saddle, and then at the girl. Their eyes 
 met, and he fancied by the corners of her 
 mouth that she understood the situation. 
 
 " When I was a child," she said gravely, 
 " I used to ride straddle always. I think 
 we can manage it if you will shorten the 
 stirrups." 
 
 As he stretched out his left hand the 
 ache in his shoulder became a sharp twinge, 
 and the hand dropped. 
 
 " What 's wrong? " she asked anxiously. 
 " Is your arm broken ? " 
 
 "No," said Chalmers; "if it 's any- 
 thing, I guess it 's only the collar-bone. 
 It did n't hurt, and I hardly realized it 
 was cracked. No consequence, anyhow." 
 
 " It is of a great deal of consequence," 
 she answered. " I am very, very sorry ! 
 Let me make a sling." She unbuckled 
 the curb-rein, and triced the arm up with 
 the skill of experience as well as the 
 
CHALMERS'S GOLD PIECE 137 
 
 woman's instinct for doing such things 
 rightly. 
 
 " Grateful and comforting," he said to 
 himself; "should be on every breakfast- 
 table." Then he blushed at his own joke, 
 and helped her up. Thus they set off in 
 search of the turnpike, Chalmers leading 
 the horse, and the lady riding astride. 
 They got over a low fence, and through a 
 gate across another field, and then they 
 went into a piece of woods. From the 
 other side of the woods a farm-house was 
 visible, and presently, by winding through 
 lanes and farm-yards, and by opening 
 innumerable gates, they came out upon 
 the highway. 
 
 " Well, this has been quite an adven- 
 ture," said Chalmers. " I feel as if I were 
 an ' Idyl of the King.' Those chaps used 
 to go grailing and things with solitary 
 maidens, did n't they?" 
 
 " Where did you hear about the ' Idyls 
 of the King ' ? " she demanded. 
 
 "Hear about them?" he said, some- 
 what taken aback. " Why, I guess I 
 must have read them." 
 
138 GALLOPS 
 
 " It is true, then," she said, half to her- 
 self, and as if she were making a note of 
 it. " Every one reads books in America. 
 I like that about America very much. 
 I 'm in favor of popular education. You 
 see, I 'm a great radical, and all that sort 
 of thing." 
 
 "That 's good," said Chalmers. It 
 struck him that she was the right sort to 
 get on with the people on Elizabeth's farm. 
 
 " Have you been long in America? " he 
 asked. 
 
 " About a month," she replied. 
 
 "What do you think of it?" He felt 
 uncomfortable at sinking to this, but he 
 wished to know what she did think. 
 
 "It 's very big," she said, "and very 
 different — oh, quite different ! The people 
 are very odd, and the customs are strange. 
 Have you ever been in New York?" 
 
 He said, " Yes," and chuckled. 
 
 " Every one travels in America, I 've 
 been told. In England they usually stop 
 about the place where they were born. 
 They rarely travel far, unless they go out 
 to the colonies, you know." 
 
CHALMERS'S GOLD PIECE 139 
 
 "But you have been in London?" he 
 asked, with a straight face. 
 
 She smiled. " Of course ; I am very 
 much in London," she replied. Then she 
 asked, "Do you live here all the year?" 
 
 " So she 's going to quiz me," he thought. 
 "Well, turn about is fair play. No," he 
 answered aloud ; " I am pretty much all 
 the time in New York and other places." 
 As he usually spent the winter poking his 
 yacht into out-of-the-way parts of the 
 earth, he thought that this was specific 
 enough. 
 
 "Really?" said she. "And I suppose 
 that most of the gentlemen who hunt here 
 live in town — I mean in New York. Mr. 
 Varick has a town house there, I believe." 
 
 Chalmers said that he had. He won- 
 dered, though, why she seemed to asso- 
 ciate him with Varick. He wondered if 
 she took him for Varick's brother-in-law, 
 Freddy Blake, who was stopping with 
 Varick. He had been taken for him 
 before. 
 
 The conversation languished, and for a 
 long time they proceeded at the slow, 
 
HO GALLOPS 
 
 measured pace of the walking horse. It 
 began to grow dark. Presently they came 
 to a farm-house which he recognized. 
 He knew that it was only three miles 
 from the kennels, so he felt encouraged. 
 As they were passing the orchard a few 
 old thaws dangled in the bare boughs 
 which overhung the road. In the dusk 
 they were scarcely discernible. 
 
 "Are those black spots apples?" she 
 asked suddenly. " I 've had no tea at all, 
 and I 'm famished." 
 
 " You poor child!" he thought. " I 'm 
 afraid they 're frozen," he said. He hesi- 
 tated. " I have a sandwich in my pocket, 
 only it 's a good deal mussed." 
 
 The girl seemed embarrassed. 
 
 "No, really!" she exclaimed; "but I 
 can't think of taking it. It 's your last 
 one, you know." 
 
 " But you must," he insisted. " It 's 
 lucky I happen to have it. At the last 
 check your friend Mr. Varick divided his 
 lunch with me." He handed her the small 
 silver box. " He gave me the box, too, years 
 ago. I 've known him since he was a boy." 
 
CHALMERS'S GOLD PIECE 141 
 
 "Oh, indeed!" she said. " How very 
 nice! Really, you are very good!" She 
 examined the contents of the box rather 
 gingerly, but proceeded to eat them. 
 
 "This is very good bacon," she re- 
 marked as she munched ; " and they usu- 
 ally have such nasty bacon in America." 
 
 Chalmers laughed. " I shall have to 
 warn Elizabeth to make an effort in the 
 matter of bacon," he thought. 
 
 They trudged along for a while, till sud- 
 denly the road curved and showed them 
 the lights of the club-house glimmering 
 half a mile ahead, and the village beyond. 
 
 " Where shall I take you ? " he asked. 
 
 " I think," she replied, "that I will go 
 to the club. My uncle will probably be 
 there." 
 
 "Uncle!" Chalmers exclaimed in- 
 wardly. " Good gracious ! Is she in tow 
 of some horse-dealing relative ? " It struck 
 him that his arrangement might meet with 
 some new difficulties. " Well," he thought, 
 " I guess we can fix uncle, too. I have a 
 farm myself." 
 
 The big lanterns on the gate-posts shed 
 
142 GALLOPS 
 
 a cheerful light as they turned into the 
 club driveway. 
 
 " It can't be much past six," he said. 
 He noticed that she was fumbling for the 
 invisible watch-pocket in her habit. " Just 
 twenty minutes past," he added, holding 
 his watch to the light. " We 've made 
 a very good pace — seven miles in two 
 hours." 
 
 " I hope your arm has n't pained you 
 much," she said. 
 
 "No; it has n't," he replied. They 
 came under the porte-cochere, and stopped. 
 
 " I thank you very much for all that you 
 have done," she said. " I shall tell my 
 uncle and Mr. Varick about it." She 
 slipped off with the support of his good 
 arm, and extended her hand. The next 
 moment Chalmers felt a coin in his palm. 
 
 " Oh, I say! I beg pardon ! " he gasped. 
 She paused on the steps, and faced him. 
 He stood there speechless, with his arm 
 outstretched toward her. 
 
 " Please take it," she said. " I know 
 it 's different in America, but you must. 
 Of course one can't pay another for saving 
 
CHALMERS'S GOLD PIECE 143 
 
 her life ; I can only thank you for that : 
 but you have been to a great deal of 
 trouble, too. English gold is good every- 
 where, is n't it? It 's all I have with me. 
 But my uncle will be very grateful to you. 
 You must come and see him to-morrow. 
 Please have your collar-bone carefully set. 
 Good night." 
 
 She turned and went into the club. 
 The situation burst on Chalmers. He 
 slipped the gold piece into his pocket, and 
 started for the stables. He stopped before 
 he reached them, though. He was sitting, 
 doubled over, on a bench by the roadway 
 (it hurt his collar-bone less if he laughed 
 doubled over) when a voice came out of 
 the darkness : 
 
 "What 's the matter there?" It was 
 the M. F. H., on his way back from the 
 kennels. 
 
 " Nothing," replied Chalmers, weakly 
 — " nothing that I can tell you." 
 
 " Oh, is that you, Chalmers?" said the 
 M. F. H. " I Ve been looking all over for 
 you. Hurry up and make yourself pre- 
 sentable. You 're dining with me at eight." 
 
144 GALLOPS 
 
 " I can't," Chalmers answered. " I 've 
 broken my collar-bone, and I hate to feed 
 in company with one hand." 
 
 " It *s too bad about your bone, but 
 you 've got to come. Your food shall be 
 served to you all cut up, or you can have 
 six courses of soup. But I don't see 
 what 's so mighty funny about a bu'sted 
 collar-bone." 
 
 "No," said Chalmers; "and you won't 
 Telephone right off for the doctor — will 
 you? — or I shall be late." He rose and 
 went on toward the stables. Suddenly the 
 thing struck him in a new light. 
 
 "A sovereign," he mused, "must be 
 quite a lot of money for a riding-mistress 
 to give as a tip. I never thought about 
 that. I wonder who her people were?" 
 
 The M. F. H. met Chalmers as he came 
 into the drawing-room. 
 
 " Hullo," said he ; " all comfy? I want 
 you to know the Earl of Reddesdale. 
 He 's been here only a week, but he 's 
 disbanded the Fence-Breakers, and he 's 
 brought his niece with him, besides. Those 
 
CHALMERS'S GOLD PIECE 145 
 
 are two praiseworthy acts. Because you 
 have foolishly got spilled somewhere, you 
 are going to take her in to dinner. Miss 
 Hamilton," he added, " may I present Mr. 
 Chalmers? " 
 
 Miss Hamilton turned, and said she 
 would be much pleased. Then she 
 glanced at Chalmers, and her eyes 
 dropped. 
 
 "I think," she said, " that I have had 
 that pleasure — this afternoon. Mr. Chal- 
 mers brought me home." She touched 
 the Earl's arm. " Uncle," she began, 
 "this is—" 
 
 "This is very extraordinary!" ejacu- 
 lated the Earl. " I thought a groom 
 brought you back, my dear — one of Mr. 
 Varick's men — " 
 
 "Oh, uncle!" the girl exclaimed. 
 
 When it was quiet enough for Chalmers 
 to be heard, he announced that he had 
 something to say. It seemed to him that 
 the chaffing was a little trying for the girl, 
 and he did a very noble thing. With 
 certain reservations, he disclosed his hy- 
 pothesis of the riding-school mistress, and 
 
146 GALLOPS 
 
 drew the fire upon himself. He blushed 
 a deeper red than Miss Hamilton, but it 
 was not so becoming, for his pink coat 
 killed the effect. 
 
 " Well, you see," he added ingenuously, 
 " I got back only this morning, and I never 
 saw a woman ride like that who was n't 
 a professional." Then dinner was an- 
 nounced. 
 
 " It was very generous of you to con- 
 fess all that," she said, when they were 
 seated. 
 
 " No," answered Chalmers ; " it was 
 only fair. My conscience would have 
 troubled me if I had n't. But as I have 
 no mama to consult about receiving pres- 
 ents from young ladies, I think I shall 
 keep that sovereign." 
 
THE BISHOPS MISSIONARY 
 MEETING 
 
VIII 
 
 THE BISHOP'S MISSIONARY MEETING 
 
 MRS. GALLOWAY checked the horse 
 to a walk, and peered into the dark- 
 ness. 
 
 " I think this is our turn," she said, " and 
 we are only half a mile from home." 
 
 " I must say, madam," observed the 
 bishop, " that my spirit goes forth in 
 thanksgiving. We have really had a most 
 adventurous expedition." 
 
 For two hours the bishop had been 
 ironing the loins of Mrs. Galloway's phae- 
 ton-horse with a hot flat-iron, a fatiguing 
 occupation to which he was unused. It 
 was nearly ten o'clock, and he had had 
 no dinner. He was weary, and his soul 
 craved the flesh-pots. 
 149 
 
15© GALLOPS 
 
 The bishop had driven forth, in Mrs. 
 Galloway's care, to inspect the condition 
 of the parish poor with a view to organiz- 
 ing a home-missionary movement. His 
 rector at Oakdale seemed inadequate to 
 the task; so the bishop, according to his 
 custom, had decided to examine the field 
 for himself. At the cottage of Mrs. 
 O'Rourke, eight miles from the Gallo- 
 ways', the horse, which had been left 
 unblanketed, developed mysterious and 
 alarming symptoms. His hind legs ap- 
 peared to be paralyzed. The bishop led 
 him under a shed, and the eldest of Mrs. 
 O'Rourke's nine, who was twelve years 
 old, diagnosed his trouble as a chill in the 
 kidneys. 
 
 " Youse git a flat-iron from ma, and 
 iron him with brown paper where he 's 
 scrunchin' down. Linyimunt would be 
 good, but I guess the flat '11 fix him if 
 youse keep at it. I 'd do it meself, only 
 I ain't that big." 
 
 Cuthbert O'Rourke (" These O'Rourkes 
 is all of thim Or'ngemin, and there 's no 
 Patricks," said the widow) superintended, 
 and carried out the hot irons. The bishop 
 
THE BISHOP'S MISSIONARY MEETING 151 
 
 ironed, and Mrs. Galloway lamented and 
 apologized. A smaller O'Rourke was 
 sent to the village with a message to be 
 telephoned to Mr. Galloway, instructing 
 him not to wait dinner. Mrs. Galloway 
 had invited a large company, which was 
 to discuss the bishop's scheme and to 
 subscribe money for carrying it out, so 
 she naturally was exasperated. It was a 
 quarter before six when the flat-iron treat- 
 ment began ; and at about eight o'clock 
 Cuthbert assured the bishop, who was 
 laboring by the light of a tin lantern, that 
 the beast was well enough to travel. They 
 started back at a slow trot, and what with 
 the cold and the darkness, the pangs of 
 hunger, and the apprehension of a return 
 of the chill, the eight miles seemed ex- 
 cessively long. When they turned up the 
 cross-road the bishop made an effort to 
 confront the situation with Christian for- 
 titude, and became almost cheerful. 
 
 " ' After the toils and perils of war, 
 grateful is the feast,' " he observed. " This 
 is a pagan sentiment, but one rooted in 
 the subsoil of our human natures." 
 
 Mrs. Galloway was wondering what sort 
 
152 GALLOPS 
 
 of feast would be forthcoming at that hour 
 of the night, but she held her peace. 
 
 " It is truly noble of you, Mrs. Gallo- 
 way," the bishop continued, " to assemble 
 these people for a discussion of our pro- 
 ject. I think I shall be able to state the 
 matter strongly, and I doubt not that we 
 shall receive generous support. I have 
 been keenly interested in this parish, as 
 presenting the problem of Christianity 
 versus the well-to-do — the problem how 
 to awaken a sense of higher responsibili- 
 ties in a community of amiable barbarians. 
 Do not misunderstand me : I use the word 
 with the interpretation and authority of 
 Mr. Matthew Arnold. And bear in mind, 
 madam, I appreciate the usefulness of 
 honest sport, and the physical manliness 
 it engenders. But that is not all of life; 
 and, unfortunately, I have observed in our 
 sport-loving rich an indifference, a color- 
 less moral attitude, toward the serious 
 things of existence, which is almost more 
 difficult to combat than actual vice. As 
 I have intimated, this parish stands as a 
 peculiarly suggestive type, and it is highly 
 
THE BISHOP'S MISSIONARY MEETING 153 
 
 gratifying to feel that the small efforts 
 which I have put forth are slowly but 
 surely bearing fruit — are slowly but surely 
 producing an interest in spiritual things. 
 A year ago, I dare say, such an occasion 
 as this would hardly have been contem- 
 plated." 
 
 " It really is gratifying," said Mrs. Gal- 
 loway ; " but I am afraid you will have a 
 very poor dinner. It must be nearly ten 
 o'clock." 
 
 " Well," said the bishop, " ' an egg and 
 an olive,' partaken of in peace and with 
 worthy discourse — that is a feast. Ah, 
 here we are!" he added, with a sigh of 
 relief. They drove under the porte-co- 
 chere, and stopped. A peal of uproarious 
 laughter and a sound of stamping feet 
 burst from the house. 
 
 " They must be still in the dining- 
 room," said Mrs. Galloway. " Hold the 
 horse, please, and I '11 ring the stable bell. 
 You could n't find it in the dark." 
 
 Just then a loud voice within shouted : 
 
 " Hit him with the poker ! Oh, harder ! 
 Make him feel it!" 
 
154 GALLOPS 
 
 Mrs. Galloway paused with her finger 
 on the bell. The dining-room windows 
 were open, but the heavy curtains were 
 drawn. She could hear what was said, 
 but could not see what was going on. 
 There was a sound of dull whacks, and 
 the noise of a scrimmage. 
 
 "Stop it! Don't, I say! Stop it! 
 You 're a brute!" This was in women's 
 voices. Mrs. Galloway turned toward the 
 bishop, speechless. 
 
 " Bless me ! " said the bishop, anxiously ; 
 " this is very strange!" 
 
 She tiptoed toward the nearest window, 
 and listened. 
 
 "Well, that 's no go," some one said. 
 "Try jabbing him with a fruit-knife." 
 
 " No; please don't!" cried a woman. 
 
 " Suppose he kicks? " said a man. 
 
 " If he 's a gentleman, he won't kick in 
 a lady's dining-room." This time they 
 recognized Varick's voice. 
 
 "Suppose he does!" exclaimed some- 
 body else. " Let him kick ! We can't 
 keep him here all night. Mrs. Galloway 
 and the bishop are likely to blow in any 
 
THE BISHOP'S MISSIONARY MEETING 155 
 
 minute. I want you to remember that 
 this is a missionary meeting." There was 
 another laugh. 
 
 "That was Charley," whispered Mrs. 
 Galloway. " Do you suppose they 've 
 caught a burglar?" 
 
 " It may be," replied the bishop. " It 's 
 very strange." 
 
 "I '11 tell you," said Varick's voice. 
 "Try blindfolding him. Take a napkin." 
 There was a general giggling for a moment. 
 " Now hit him gently with a bottle." 
 
 "Come on here!" came in angry tones 
 from Galloway. " You can't stop here 
 forever. Get hold, you chaps, and push." 
 
 There was a sudden scuffle, and a sound 
 like the tramping of heavy boots. 
 
 " Catch the candles ! " a woman screamed. 
 
 There was a deafening crash of glass 
 and china, and a hubbub of screams and 
 exclamations. A dead silence followed, 
 and then Galloway's voice was heard, un- 
 naturally calm : 
 
 " Well, the dinner-table 's gone ! " 
 
 Mrs. Galloway stood petrified. A groom 
 appeared and took the horse. 
 
156 GALLOPS 
 
 " What is going on in there ? " demanded 
 the bishop. The man moved into the 
 shadow. 
 
 " I dunno, sir," he replied in a queer 
 voice. He got into the phaeton, and the 
 bishop and his hostess walked softly along 
 the veranda toward the door. 
 
 " I am afraid something terrible has 
 happened," said Mrs. Galloway, tremu- 
 lously. " Suppose they have killed him ? " 
 She drew back, and the bishop went in 
 ahead. They passed down the hall to the 
 dining-room. With a little scream, Mrs. 
 Galloway clutched the door-jamb. 
 
 " Thank goodness ! Thank goodness ! " 
 she murmured. " I thought it was a bur- 
 glar. Some water, please — quick!" 
 
 But the bishop gazed fixedly into the 
 room. " Some water for Mrs. Galloway ! " 
 he called huskily. 
 
 A horse with a napkin knotted about 
 his neck was in the middle of the room, 
 by the wreck of the dinner-table. Var- 
 ick was standing the candelabra on the 
 floor, and relighting the bent candles. 
 The others were watching Galloway, the 
 
THE BISHOP'S MISSIONARY MEETING 157 
 
 women with their skirts wrapped about 
 them, prepared for any new catastrophe. 
 When Mrs. Galloway screamed, they 
 turned and regarded her and the bishop. 
 
 " My dear," said her husband, " this is 
 an unfortunate occurrence. We need not 
 discuss it. As you did not come home, 
 there was some talk between Colfax and 
 myself which ended in his betting me 
 that I could n't ride Camelot through the 
 house. Now he 's in, and we can't get 
 him out. He balked at the lights." 
 
 " I think," said Mrs. Galloway, " you 
 had better send for the servants, and clean 
 up this mess. Then I want you to hurry 
 and get that horse out of the room. I told 
 you the last time, when you brought Huron 
 in here, that such things must stop." 
 
 " Oh, you 've been practising this game, 
 have you ? " interrupted Colfax. " I don't 
 think that was square. I '11 leave it to the 
 bishop." 
 
 " Only with Huron," said Galloway, 
 " and he 's sick. I 've never had this 
 one in." 
 
 " Charley Galloway," said his wife, 
 
158 GALLOPS 
 
 " are you going to get that beast out of 
 here or not?" 
 
 "Be reasonable, my dear," said Gallo- 
 way. " I have been trying for half an 
 hour to get him out. I tell you, he 's 
 balked." 
 
 " We might put a candle under him," 
 suggested Varick. " There is n't much 
 left to smash." 
 
 " Put that candle down ! " said his sister- 
 in-law, Mrs. Innis. " This is n't your 
 house or your horse." 
 
 " Yes; do put it down," said his wife. 
 
 " I don't see what there is to be done," 
 Galloway observed, " except to let him 
 stop here till he gets tired. The rest of us 
 might as well go into the smoking-room." 
 
 "Take that horse out of here at once!" 
 said Mrs. Galloway. 
 
 " My dear!" protested her husband. 
 
 " At once!" said Mrs. Galloway. 
 
 There was an uneasy silence. 
 
 " Mr. Galloway," said the bishop, with 
 some hesitation, " my brougham horse 
 sometimes balks, and I always give him 
 sugar. Have you any sugar?" 
 
THE BISHOP'S MISSIONARY MEETING 159 
 
 Galloway smiled scornfully, but found 
 the coffee-tray and handed him the sugar- 
 bowl. Galloway's smile said : " This is a 
 harmless fancy which may divert my wife ; 
 but of course it is impossible to get that 
 horse out of the house by any such non- 
 sense." Varick's answering smile plainly 
 implied: "Why, of course; preposterous, 
 is n't it?" 
 
 " Now, my good beast," said the bishop, 
 " here 's some sugar." Camelot took two 
 lumps with relish. The bishop patted his 
 neck. "A nice horsey — a nice horsey," 
 he said soothingly. " Here 's some more. 
 Come along now, and you shall get the 
 rest of the bowlful." He chirruped softly, 
 and the horse started. Holding the bowl 
 in front of Camelot's muzzle, with stately 
 deliberation the bishop led him through 
 the hall, out upon the veranda, and down 
 the steps. The company, hushed and at 
 a respectful distance, followed, and halted 
 on the veranda. 
 
 " Bishop Cunningham," said Mrs. Gal- 
 loway, " I am very much indebted to you 
 — very much indebted indeed. Mr. Gal- 
 
160 GALLOPS 
 
 loway, will you be good enough to order 
 us something to eat, and send for a groom 
 to take this horse?" Mr. Galloway went 
 into the house. " I am distressed, en 
 your account, that this should have hap- 
 pened," she added to the bishop ; " and, 
 I admit, somewhat mortified on my own. 
 I cannot help feeling that you must draw 
 the line yourself against horses in the 
 dining-room." 
 
 " Please do not speak of it," exclaimed 
 the bishop, with a bow. " I beg of you 
 to let the subject drop." 
 
 " You are so good!" murmured Mrs. 
 Galloway. She gave a little choke ; her 
 nerves were beginning to assert them- 
 selves. 
 
 " What we all ought to do," said Varick, 
 " is to give three cheers for the bishop, 
 who is a horse -tamer and a brick, and 
 leave this ruined home to its inmates." 
 
 " Hold up!" interrupted Willie Colfax. 
 " Cheers are all right, but I want to make 
 a speech first." He turned toward the 
 bishop. " You see, sir, I have just won 
 a hundred from Galloway because he 
 
THE BISHOP'S MISSIONARY MEETING 161 
 
 could n't get that horse out. You have got 
 him out, and, considering the matter on the 
 general principles of a sweepstake, you 
 ought to get the hundred. I don't sup- 
 pose you want the money yourself, so I 
 am starting your missionary subscription 
 with it, and as much more added to fat up 
 the pot. Now, the rest of you fellows, 
 remember you are at a missionary meeting, 
 and do the right thing." And they all 
 did. 
 
HIS FIRST RACE 
 
IX 
 
 HIS FIRST RACE 
 
 YOUNG Hatfield sat up in bed, and 
 began groping for matches and the 
 candle. He struck a light, and looked at 
 his watch. It was half-past five. He 
 drew a long breath, and tried to recall 
 the nightmare from which he had just 
 escaped. He had been riding furiously, 
 over a vague, gray, boundless country 
 seamed with immense jumps. The dream 
 at first had been confused and misty, but 
 gradually it had turned into a situation 
 where he was alone and helpless, on the 
 back of a mad runaway. Then as he 
 galloped faster and faster toward an enor- 
 mous fence, the vision grew clear and real 
 — frightfully real. The horse hit, the fall 
 165 
 
166 GALLOPS 
 
 came, and he was awake, but the crash 
 of breaking rails still jarred in his ears. 
 His heart was thumping with the dream- 
 horror that had come as his horse's head 
 and withers sank under him. He was 
 breathing hard, and his knees felt weak. 
 He had believed that he was dead. 
 
 To throw the impression off, he slipped 
 out of bed, and pushed open the shut- 
 ters. The pines about the Oakdale club- 
 house were sighing. Down the valley a 
 southwest wind was herding successive 
 ranks of low, wet clouds. In the first 
 glimmerings of dawn the distant hills 
 were only a darker shadow across the 
 horizon. The gray fields in front of 
 the club sloped dimly, and were lost in 
 the mists on the bottom-lands. Hatfield 
 stretched his arm out, and opened his 
 hand to the wind. 
 
 " They '11 race," he muttered ; " there 's 
 no frost." He cuddled his hands in his 
 pajama sleeves, and shivered. Then he 
 closed the window, and jumped into bed. 
 
 Hatfield had left Forbes's dinner about 
 two o'clock ; therefore he needed sleep, but 
 
HIS FIRST RACE 167 
 
 he knew that it was out of the question. 
 His brain was in that stage of nervous 
 alertness which results from champagne 
 and much coffee, followed by an evening 
 of Scotch and soda. His dream weighed 
 upon him; there was a prophetic vivid- 
 ness about it which he could not put out of 
 mind. He argued that the horse he was 
 going to ride had run many steeplechases, 
 and had never hurt any one. Forbes had 
 told him that, when he offered him the 
 mount. Then an inner voice suggested that 
 this was the more reason for avoiding that 
 horse. Every horse will fall some day. 
 His mind brought up instances of men 
 killed in the hunting-field when mounted 
 on their best. He had known an English- 
 man killed in that way the winter before. 
 At the end of an hour he felt certain that 
 he was going to be killed, or at least badly 
 hurt, and he tried to be calm about it. He 
 was not superstitious, but presentiments 
 nowadays have a scientific recognition, and 
 he felt sure that a presentiment had come 
 to him. He imagined how he would look 
 in his coffin, and he wondered whether his 
 
168 GALLOPS 
 
 mother would come over, or whether they 
 would send him to her. His mother lived 
 in Europe. Then he fell to thinking about 
 the Girl who, at that moment, was asleep 
 at the Alden Adamses', a mile up the road. 
 He wondered if by any freak of thought- 
 transference his dream had come to her. 
 
 Suddenly it occurred to him that he was 
 not obliged to ride. He might be taken 
 ill, and afterward give up hunting alto- 
 gether. He was ashamed and angry, but 
 he could not put the idea out of his mind. 
 It came back, tempting him with plausible 
 excuses. A little before seven he got up 
 and dressed. Then he took a writing-case 
 from his trunk, and wrote three short notes. 
 Two of these he sealed with his ring. One 
 was addressed to his mother, the second to 
 the Girl who was stopping at the Adamses'. 
 The third was open, and addressed to 
 Forbes. The possibility that, after all, he 
 might be making an ass of himself had 
 occurred to him, and what he wrote was 
 bald and matter-of-fact. He hoped against 
 conviction that he was making an ass of 
 himself. He had much to live for. He 
 
HIS FIRST RACE 169 
 
 had planned things which it was hard to 
 imagine he was not going to fulfil. He 
 put the envelops in his writing-case and 
 went down-stairs to wait for breakfast. 
 
 Hatfield was twenty-three, and was 
 spoken of as a boy who might amount to 
 a good deal if a comfortable income and 
 half a dozen other pitfalls of youth did 
 not destroy him. Horses were a new fad. 
 As a child he had ridden his pony, but 
 going 'cross country was a fresh experi- 
 ence. When the Girl went to the Alden 
 Adamses' for November, Hatfield had 
 bought a couple of hunters and gone down 
 to Oakdale. He had been out four or five 
 times with the hounds, and the game had 
 ensnared him. His views of life forthwith 
 changed. It seemed only worth while to be- 
 come and to be known as a " hunting-man." 
 He pinned his stock the way Braybrooke 
 pinned his ; he affected Galloway's practice 
 of carrying a cutting-whip instead of a 
 crop ; he copied Forbes's seat — that is, 
 until Whitney Corlies came down : after 
 that he modeled himself upon Corlies. 
 He realized that he was a beginner, and 
 
170 GALLOPS 
 
 was discreet in his opinions; but he was 
 impatient to acquire a standing. If Corlies 
 had suggested flying the river, Hatfield 
 would have gone at it without hesitation. 
 When Forbes had offered him the mount 
 for the steeplechase, the night before at 
 dinner, he felt that his chance had come. 
 
 Forbes knew that Hatfield was green, 
 but he had observed that he rode with 
 his heart in it; and, moreover, there was 
 no one else to put up who could make the 
 weight. He had written to Carty Car- 
 teret, offering him the mount, and the day 
 before had received a telegram of regret. 
 Carteret wired that he knew the Rajah, 
 that his accident policy had expired, and 
 that he owed it to his beloved parents 
 to decline. The fact was that Carteret 
 wanted to hunt that day in Philadelphia. 
 The telegram nettled Forbes, because he 
 was sure the horse could win. There were 
 exactly eight other gentlemen at Oakdale 
 each privately holding similar views about 
 his own horse. 
 
 When Hatfield went into the breakfast- 
 room he found Corlies there. 
 
HIS FIRST RACE 171 
 
 " He 's around awfully early," thought 
 Hatfield. But Corlies's ways were not as 
 other men's. Neither did people ask him 
 personal questions. He nodded to the boy. 
 
 " Better take your coffee with me," he 
 said. 
 
 " I 'd like to," Hatfield answered as 
 calmly as he could. It was a distinction 
 to breakfast with Whitney Corlies. What 
 Corlies did not know about horses, and 
 what he could not do with them, were not 
 things of consequence. He was a lean, 
 finely proportioned man of forty-five. 
 Everything he did he did well and easily. 
 All his life the world had run after him. 
 What he thought about it no one knew, 
 for he rarely spoke. Men as well as 
 women thought him handsome. Meis- 
 sonier might have painted him as a colonel 
 of cavalry. He was unmarried, and there 
 was a romantic story about him. Once 
 Hatfield had asked Mrs. Innis about it. 
 She looked surprised, and told him that 
 she did n't know the details. 
 
 " So you 're riding the Rajah," said 
 Corlies, as the boy sat down. 
 
172 GALLOPS 
 
 "Yes," said Hatfield. "I 
 been on his back, and I 've never ridden 
 a race before. I 'm afraid I shall make 
 rather a mess of it." 
 
 " He 's a brute at times," observed 
 Codies. He spread out his paper, and 
 proceeded to take the top off his egg. 
 Presently he spoke again : 
 
 " It 's going to be wet. Have you got 
 a braided rein?" 
 
 "No," replied Hatfield. "Perhaps 
 Forbes has, though." 
 
 " He does n't believe in them," said 
 Corlies. " I '11 have one sent down for 
 you. Your horse bores. I rode him 
 once." The Rajah was an English horse. 
 When he was six years old, and sound, 
 Corlies had ridden him in the Grand 
 National. 
 
 "Thank you for the rein," said Hat- 
 field. " It was very good of you to think 
 about it." He was pleased, because he 
 knew that Corlies paid few attentions to 
 men. Besides, he had experienced the 
 difficulty of bringing a bolter's head 
 around with an ordinary wet bridle-rein. 
 
HIS FIRST RACE 173 
 
 What he had heard about the Rajah was 
 not assuring. A horse that bored was 
 likely to get his head down, and run into 
 a jump without rising. He knew of a 
 man who had been hopelessly crippled by 
 such an accident 
 
 Presently Corlies rose. " Don't you 
 want to see the paper?" he said. He 
 pushed the sheets over the table. " You 'd 
 better find out whether Forbes has had 
 the horse sharp-shod. He 's careless about 
 such things." He nodded and moved off. 
 
 Most of the men who were going to ride, 
 and a number who were n't, lunched at 
 the club that day. They made a party 
 around the big center-table. It was 
 noticeable that those who were going to 
 look on seemed to be having the best 
 time. They talked most and ate most. 
 The others talked less, and pecked at 
 things with a great show of appetite ; 
 some of them drank liberally, Willie 
 Colfax, who sat next to Hatfield, was 
 lunching mainly upon a magnum of 
 Bass. 
 
174 GALLOPS 
 
 " Better have some," he suggested po- 
 litely, for the fourth time. 
 
 "No," said Hatfield; "I don't think 
 I '11 drink anything. To tell the truth, I 
 don't feel like eating much, either." 
 
 Colfax grinned. 
 
 " Don't feel much like gorging, myself ;" 
 he remarked confidentially. " That 's why 
 I 've got this." He nodded toward the 
 magnum, 
 
 " Are you really feeling that way, too? " 
 Hatfield asked. Colfax had ridden many 
 steeplechases. 
 
 " Why, of course," he replied. " It 's 
 nothing to be ashamed of. It 's just ex- 
 citement. None of them are really feed- 
 ing," he went on, waving his hand toward 
 the men who were dressed to ride. " They 
 're just putting up a bluff — that is, all 
 except Corlies. He 's colder than am- 
 monia-pipes. I say, Charles," he remarked 
 to Galloway, " have some game-pie. It 's 
 hearty, you know. You 're a little short 
 of weight." 
 
 Galloway laughed. 
 
 " Pass it to Hatfield," he said. " If he 's 
 
HIS FIRST RACE 175 
 
 riding the Rajah, it '11 be his last meal on 
 earth, and he ought to make the most 
 of it." 
 
 "Oh, shut up!" snapped Forbes. 
 " I 'm sick of hearing you run down my 
 horse. Why have you always wanted to 
 buy him ? " 
 
 "To feed to the hounds," said Gallo- 
 way, sweetly. " But if he 's all right, why 
 don't you ride him yourself? Why are 
 you always looking for foolhardy boys?" 
 
 Forbes declined to reply. 
 
 " Don't pay any attention to him," he 
 said to Hatfield. ," He knows we have 
 the legs of the lot, with the possible ex- 
 ception of Corlies's mare. We 're going 
 to win." 
 
 "Do you really think so?" asked Hat- 
 field. "You know," he added, "I 'm 
 afraid I 'm a hoodoo." 
 
 "Nonsense!" said Forbes. 
 
 The chaffing went on, and Hatfield fell 
 to studying the faces of the men he was 
 going to ride against. They seemed to 
 him discouragingly unconcerned. He felt 
 drawn to Colfax, who admitted that food 
 
176 GALLOPS 
 
 had no fascinations. Yet, if these men 
 were free from apprehension, there could 
 be no real risk. Three of them were 
 married — happily — and had families; they 
 were not indifferent about existence. This 
 was a logical argument, but it carried no 
 conviction. 
 
 "When you 've finished," said Forbes, 
 " we might start along. The Rajah 's at 
 the stables. I thought you might like to 
 walk him down to the course, and get your 
 legs bent over him." 
 
 "Thanks," said Hatfield; "I should." 
 He had dressed before lunch, and had 
 a morning-coat over his racing-jacket. 
 Forbes's colors were very gaudy — scarlet 
 and black hoops. As they reached the 
 stables a coach-horn sounded, and Hat- 
 field looked back. The Alden Adamses' 
 drag was swinging through the grounds. 
 The crowd had begun to gather. Al- 
 ready the court before the porte-cochere 
 was filled with traps and with men on 
 hacks who were stopping at the club to 
 see the list of starters. The horn sounded 
 again, and the " four " rumbled past 
 
HIS FIRST RACE 177 
 
 Hatfield caught a glimpse of the Girl, 
 buttoned up to the chin in a man's mackin- 
 tosh, but she did n't see him. She was 
 sitting between two loquacious young 
 men who, together with the rest of the 
 party, seemed needlessly jolly. He fol- 
 lowed the back of her sailor hat with his 
 eyes till the coach disappeared around the 
 turn that led to the porte-cochere. Sud- 
 denly Forbes touched him on the arm, and 
 he felt himself blushing. The Rajah had 
 been led out, and was standing beside him. 
 He turned and clambered into the saddle. 
 
 "Take him quietly," said Forbes. 
 " He 's feeling a bit beany, and he may 
 bolt. Your stirrups seem about right. 
 I '11 see you at the post. I 'm going to 
 drive down. There 's a boy waiting for 
 you on the course." 
 
 Hatfield followed the path around the 
 stables, and turned into the lane that led 
 down to the great meadow where the 
 steeplechase course was laid. Ahead of 
 him was a dotted line of traps and hooded 
 and blanketed horses moving slowly to- 
 ward the track. A Hempstead cart with 
 
178 GALLOPS 
 
 a lively pony dashed by, and the Rajah 
 shied into the fence. Hatfield lost a 
 stirrup, and the young man in the cart 
 snickered. Hatfield felt that he must be 
 making himself ridiculous. One vehicle 
 after another passed, and he knew that 
 each time the occupants were comment- 
 ing upon his inexperience. As he reached 
 the meadow he heard the coach-horn 
 again, and turned out. The drag swept 
 by at a canter. The Girl saw him this 
 time, and bowed ; but it was a distant, 
 formal little nod, and she knew it. To 
 her, he looked very bored and indifferent. 
 It seemed profitable to her to appear to 
 him much interested in other matters. She 
 did not know she was cruel. 
 
 "You 're dining with us, you know!" 
 Adams yelled from the box. 
 
 Hatfield nodded. " If I 'm dining any- 
 where," he murmured. He followed the 
 drag with his eyes. The people on it were 
 having a very good time, and he com- 
 pared himself with them — particularly 
 with the two insufferable young men. It 
 struck him as a queer misnomer to call 
 
HIS FIRST RACE 179 
 
 riding steeplechases an amusement. Then he 
 bowed to Galloway, who drove by with the 
 Braybrookes ; for Mrs. Galloway would n't 
 come when her husband rode. Galloway 
 was joking with Mrs. Braybrooke, and to all 
 appearances he seemed conspicuously gay. 
 Those familiar with his habits, however, 
 knew that after lunch he usually smoked 
 a cigar; now he was sucking his lungs 
 full of cigarette smoke. Hatfield rode 
 toward the judges' stand, where the scales 
 were, and one of Corlies's grooms came up 
 to him. 
 
 " Here 's the racing-rein, sir," said the 
 man. " Mr. Corlies told me I was to put 
 it on the Rajah. You '11 be likely to need 
 it, sir." A little squall burst from the south, 
 driving a fine drizzle across the plain. 
 
 " I '11 weigh out while you 're putting 
 it on," said Hatfield. He took the saddle 
 and breastplate, and went to the scales. 
 
 " A hundred and sixty-eight," the clerk 
 said. He was three pounds over, but all 
 overweight was allowed. He borrowed a 
 pair of lighter stirrup-irons from a boy on 
 a pony, got his number, and went back to 
 
180 GALLOPS 
 
 his horse. Forbes's man came along with 
 a bucket, and began to sponge out the 
 Rajah's mouth. Presently Forbes ap- 
 peared. 
 
 " They 're about ready," he said. " You 
 know the course. It 's the hurdle, the 
 mound, the brush, and the liverpool of the 
 regular course, and then a two-mile flagged 
 loop over natural fences, back on to the 
 course, over the water and the hurdle, and 
 finish down the regular stretch. That 's 
 about four miles, or a little more. The 
 Rajah will last, and jump strong. Don't 
 hurry him, but don't bother him by trying 
 to lie too far back. Let him rate along 
 and make the pace, if he wants to and can. 
 The only mean place is in the loop, com- 
 ing back, where there 's something of a 
 drop on the other side of the hedge fence. 
 Get him well in hand there, and don't try 
 to fly it, or you may come to grief. The 
 committee should n't put such a thing in 
 the course. But I 've put a boy there, in 
 case you have a spill. Keep your whip 
 till the stretch. Hello ! " he added, " where 
 did you get that rein ? " 
 
HIS FIRST RACE 181 
 
 " Corlies lent it to me," said Hatfield. 
 
 Forbes glanced up curiously. 
 
 " Corlies?" he repeated. He looked the 
 rein over, and tested its strength. " It 's 
 all right," he muttered, — "of course," he 
 added. " That 's queer for Corlies, though. 
 Give me your coat." 
 
 Hatfield stripped it off, and rode away 
 shivering in his colors to the place where 
 the parade was forming. The bugle 
 sounded, and they filed past the line of 
 spectators to the post. He fixed his eyes 
 on his horse's neck, but he was conscious 
 that the gaze of the crowd was on him. 
 His face burned and his head began to 
 swim. He clutched the saddle with his 
 knees, and coaxed the fretful Rajah into 
 line. Suddenly some one said, "Go!" 
 and the race had begun. 
 
 The sudden speed took his breath away, 
 and he hung back. He saw that the field 
 were going at the first jump, in two lines. 
 He put his weight on the Rajah's mouth, 
 and fell back into the second. He recog- 
 nized Corlies as he rose to the hurdle 
 ahead. Corlies sat back leisurely, and 
 
182 GALLOPS 
 
 horse and man went over like a single 
 creature. The rest he saw only as a con- 
 fused line of bobbing figures. The next 
 instant his own horse, with a rush, sprang 
 into the air, landed, and was bolting after 
 the leaders. He pulled him in as he came 
 up on Galloway's off side. Then his 
 strength seemed to ooze out, and he was 
 panting. A horse's head crept up on his 
 right. He glanced around, and saw Cor- 
 lies, who forged up. They galloped, with 
 their knees almost brushing. 
 
 " Steady," said Corlies, quietly ; " there 's 
 four miles." The boy shut his lips tight, 
 and nodded. 
 
 " Can I last four miles?" he began to 
 ask himself. He was determined that he 
 would, but he did not see how it was to 
 be done; he was pumped already. They 
 approached the bank, and the three took 
 it together. He felt the Rajah's knees rub 
 the top sods, but he gained half a length 
 on Galloway in the leap. He realized 
 then what they meant when they called 
 the horse a " close jumper." Presently a 
 warm glow broke over him, and his breath 
 
HIS FIRST RACE 183 
 
 came more easily. The speed no longer 
 frightened him. It was getting into his 
 blood. His nervous apprehensions van- 
 ished. He felt a mad exhilaration coming 
 over him. It was like the fury of the 
 Berserker. "I 'm going to win!" he 
 muttered. Then he suddenly understood 
 why men ride steeplechases. He settled 
 comfortably into the saddle, and took an 
 easier hold on his horse's head. The 
 Rajah was working under him like a steel 
 machine. He flew the brush as if shot 
 from a mortar. A wild thrill went through 
 him, and he caught himself laughing 
 hysterically. He turned in the saddle, 
 and looked back at the field. Galloway 
 was pounding along on his left, a length 
 behind. Braybrooke was lapping Gallo- 
 way, still farther out. Directly in the rear 
 was Colfax, and behind him came the rest 
 in a bunch. On his right, and galloping 
 neck and neck, was Corlies. As they 
 neared the liverpool he became aware that 
 Galloway was drawing up. Corlies called 
 sharply : 
 
 " Don't let him head you here!" 
 
184 GALLOPS 
 
 Afterward Hatfield found out what this 
 advice meant. At that time he merely 
 acted upon it. He glanced back anxiously, 
 and felt for the cutting- whip, tucked under 
 his leg. But the Rajah was holding Gal- 
 loway stride for stride, and they flew the 
 liverpool three abreast. The course bore 
 to the right, and led over a board fence 
 into a corn-field. The going grew heavy, 
 and he felt his mount struggling ankle- 
 deep. Instinctively he checked him to a 
 hand-gallop. He knew that he had done 
 right when he saw Corlies take in his rein 
 and keep by his side. 
 
 With a whoop Galloway went by, Bray- 
 brooke followed, and Colfax came along- 
 side. A clod of mud from Braybrooke's 
 horse plastered Hatfield's cheek. In a 
 moment they rose to the next fence, and 
 were on good turf again. He heard a 
 crash, and, twisting around, saw some one 
 fall. ''Some one 's down!" he said to 
 Corlies. Corlies nodded. They began to 
 overtake Braybrooke and Galloway. He 
 saw Galloway clap in his heels, and again 
 he felt nervously for his whip ; but he re- 
 
HIS FIRST RACE 185 
 
 membered his orders, and did not take it 
 out. A series of fierce puffs of wind sud- 
 denly checked them appreciably and an- 
 other rain squall broke down the valley, 
 and met them in the face. The water 
 filled his eyes, and he lost track of distance 
 and direction. He saw two blurred figures 
 ahead, and followed them. Looking down, 
 the earth seemed a brown- green tide that 
 rushed by. Suddenly to the right he 
 made out the flags on the fence he was 
 nearing, and realized that he was out of 
 the course. The Rajah put his head down, 
 and bored still farther to the left. He 
 leaned forward, took the rein up short, 
 and swung him back, barely in time to go 
 over the rails inside the streamer. He lost 
 his stirrups in landing, and groped for the 
 swinging irons. He was half-way across 
 the field before he got them. His thigh 
 muscles were limp, and he was rocking in 
 the saddle. " It must be half over," he 
 thought. They were nearing a hedge 
 faced with a board fence. The Rajah 
 rose, and that instant Hatfield saw the 
 drop on the farther side. He had forgot- 
 
186 GALLOPS 
 
 ten Forbes's instructions to shorten his 
 pace. He hunched his shoulders for a 
 fall ; but the old horse collected himself, 
 and landed with his fore legs well away. 
 Hatfield went up on his neck, but scrambled 
 back and got his stirrups again. 
 
 Braybrooke and Galloway were drop- 
 ping back. Corlies was still on his 
 quarter, to the right. They rounded the 
 loop, and with the next jump turned on 
 to the steeplechase course again. If the 
 horse lasted, he knew now that it lay 
 between him and Corlies. He gritted his 
 teeth, and tried to steady his seat. But 
 inch by inch Corlies drew up and forged 
 past. Hatfield took the water two lengths 
 behind him, and the Rajah was beginning 
 to lean upon the bit. The spring had 
 gone out of his stride, but he kept to his 
 work. He was four lengths behind when 
 Corlies went at the last hurdle. This was 
 built solidly of new rails. Suddenly Hat- 
 field knew that Corlies's mare had taken 
 off too soon. She seemed to hang a 
 moment, and then to shoot heels over head 
 directly in his path. He put his weight 
 
HIS FIRST RACE 187 
 
 on the Rajah's mouth, and swung him close 
 to the wing on the left. The checked 
 horse floundered into the hurdle, and 
 bucked weakly over. As he landed, Hat- 
 field saw Corlies's mare roll across her 
 rider and scramble up; but Corlies lay- 
 motionless on his side in front of the 
 middle of the jump. Hatfield heard Gal- 
 loway and Braybrooke galloping up. He 
 flung himself to the ground beside the 
 unconscious man. 
 
 " Look out!" Galloway yelled. He 
 was taking off on the other side. Bray- 
 brooke was beside him. The boy caught 
 Corlies under the armpits, and staggered 
 back, as the two horses landed. He saw the 
 Rajah and the mare go off with them down 
 the stretch. Then he bent over the in- 
 jured man, and tore open his racing-jacket. 
 Underneath, Corlies wore a flannel waist- 
 coat. Hatfield unbuttoned it and felt for 
 the heart. Some papers in an elastic band 
 slipped out of the inside pocket and fell 
 to the ground. The heart was faintly 
 beating, and Hatfield sat down with the 
 man's head in his lap. He himself was 
 
188 GALLOPS 
 
 "done." He saw Colfax come over the 
 hurdle, then another and another. Then a 
 man rode around the jump to where he was 
 and dismounted. It was Varick. 
 
 "Is he bad?" he panted. 
 
 "I don't know," said Hatfield. Pres- 
 ently some men rode up on ponies, and a 
 farmer came with a wagon. They lifted 
 Corlies in, and went off toward the finish. 
 Hatfield slipped Corlies's papers into his 
 hip pocket, and walked slowly after them 
 with Varick, who was leading his horse. 
 
 "You pulled him out, did n't you?" 
 asked Varick. " He had a close call." 
 
 Hatfield nodded. " St. Lawrence seems 
 pumped," he said, glancing at Varick's 
 dripping horse. " It was fast, was n't it? " 
 
 Varick grinned dismally. " St. Larry 
 has had enough. That was an awful 
 corn-field." 
 
 They went on in silence to the crowd 
 which had gathered about the wagon, and 
 met Colfax on the edge of it. 
 
 " Charley Galloway won," he said. He 
 looked at Hatfield. " You gave it away. 
 You might have won as you liked." 
 
HIS FIRST RACE 189 
 
 " How 's Whitney?" asked Varick. 
 
 " All right," Colfax answered. " He 's 
 come to. The wind was rolled out of him, 
 and a couple of ribs cracked. You can't 
 kill him. Good race, was n't it? I wish 
 I had n't drunk so much ale," he added 
 to Hatfield. " I 'm far from well." 
 
 Then Forbes came up. 
 
 " Well, I lost the race for you," said 
 Hatfield. " I 'm sorry." He was not 
 sorry, though. He was only surprised at 
 the suggestion that he might have left 
 Corlies there and won it. He was new at 
 steeplechasing. 
 
 " It 's all in the game," said Forbes. 
 " One 's got to learn. He carried you 
 well, did n't he? Here are your coats." 
 
 The people and the vehicles were be- 
 ginning to scatter, and Hatfield got into 
 Varick's trap and drove home. As they 
 turned into the club grounds, Adams's 
 horn sounded, and the drag went by. 
 
 "Remember, dinner at eight!" Adams 
 shouted. Then the Girl bowed again — it 
 seemed to Hatfield, quite differently this 
 time. It was a bow that gave him a very 
 
igo GALLOPS 
 
 comfortable feeling. He caught a second 
 glimpse of the two youths, and was sur- 
 prised that he had ever envied them. 
 They were only a pair of pasty-faced 
 " dancing men." 
 
 After the race, most of the men gathered 
 in the club for drinks and discussion ; but 
 Hatfield went to his room. He lighted his 
 fire, and rang for his tub and hot water. 
 Then he took the three letters from his 
 writing-case, and burned them. He was 
 tired, but his nerves were pleasurably 
 drowsy. He sat down and watched the 
 blazing sticks with a delicious animal con- 
 tentment. His thoughts were agreeable 
 ones. There was a new feeling of confi- 
 dence in himself, and a consciousness of 
 power that he had never had before. He 
 had a curious sense, too, of having sud- 
 denly grown older, and it pleased him. 
 
 The evening came on, and he was getting 
 ready for dinner when a servant knocked, 
 and told him that Corlies would like to see 
 him. He recollected the papers which he 
 had forgotten to return, took them from 
 
HIS FIRST RACE 191 
 
 his breeches pocket, and went to the 
 injured man's room. Corlies lay in bed. 
 The doctor had cleaned him up and ban- 
 daged his ribs. His left arm was sprained 
 and lay across his breast in a sling. He 
 smiled as Hatfield came in. 
 
 "You see, I 'm all right," he said. 
 " Sore, though. Much obliged to you. 
 They 've just told me about it. You could 
 have won, you know." 
 
 The boy laughed. " I don't know about 
 that," he said. " Anyway, I should n't 
 have deserved it, if I had won. I was in 
 a horrible funk before the race." He 
 hesitated a moment. " I might as well 
 confess it," he went on; "I even had a 
 farewell letter all written to my mother. 
 By the way," he added, " I opened your 
 shirt when you were down, and these bills 
 and things got loose. I forgot to send 
 them in." 
 
 Corlies looked up anxiously. " Oh, 
 thanks," he said. " I was wondering what 
 had become of that." He stretched out his 
 well arm and took the packet. With his 
 fingers he worked off the rubber band, and 
 
192 GALLOPS 
 
 glancing over the envelops, laid them on 
 the bedclothes. 
 
 " Is everything there? " asked Hatfield. 
 
 Corlies nodded and smiled. He seemed 
 relieved. " You rode a good race," he 
 said. "You kept your head." 
 
 The boy flushed with pleasure. 
 
 " Of course, it was my first," he answered. 
 " I hope next time I won't be so rattled." 
 
 " Your first" repeated Corlies, mus- 
 ingly. " It was pretty nearly my last. 
 I thought it was going to be. I had 
 a presentiment that the mare was com- 
 ing over on me when she hit. But you 
 will ride well," he added. " I should n't 
 worry about funking. You know, a man 
 can even be afraid and ride tolerably well." 
 He smiled. " You spoke about the letter 
 you wrote. Well, I 've carried a letter in 
 every race I 've ridden for twenty years." 
 He felt absent-mindedly for the papers in 
 front of him, blundered, and sent them slid- 
 ing down the coverlet off the bed. Instinc- 
 tively Hatfield stooped to gather them up. 
 
 "Never mind," said Corlies. "No; 
 don't!" he called sharply. 
 
HIS FIRST RACE 193 
 
 But the boy already had got them, and 
 was standing, bent over, his eyes fixed on 
 a worn envelop that bore the name " Hat- 
 field." He would have doubted his sight, 
 but the writing was very plain. There in 
 his hand was a letter addressed to his own 
 mother. What did it mean? A train of 
 strange thoughts flashed through his brain ; 
 the blood rushed into his cheeks. He 
 straightened up and fixed his eyes, angry 
 and questioning, on Corlies's face. The 
 sick man met his gaze frankly, and for a 
 time they looked into each other's eyes. 
 Suddenly understanding came to Hatfield, 
 and his anger faded into pity, his indigna- 
 tion into respect. He turned his head 
 away, and held out the packet. 
 
 With his good hand Corlies motioned 
 it back. 
 
 " Read it," he murmured. 
 
 The boy shook his head, and dropped 
 the letters on the bed. Then the shadow 
 of a smile, sad and gentle, rested an instant 
 on the sick man's mouth, a strange tender- 
 ness flashed in his eyes, and again his face 
 became grave and expressionless. 
 
 *3 
 
194 GALLOPS 
 
 "Yes," he said slowly; " I thought this 
 time that it was all up. It was an ugly 
 spill." He stopped, and turned his eyes 
 to the ceiling. " It 's a good way to go, 
 though," he said presently; "is n't it? — 
 quick, and without any fuss." 
 
 "Yes; that 's so," said Hatfield. Then 
 he remembered his dinner at the Adamses'. 
 " That is, if one wants to go ; but I 'm 
 hardly ready yet. Is there anything I can 
 do for you?" he added. "You see, I 'm 
 dining out, and I 'm afraid my trap 's wait- 
 ing. I '11 look in, of course, when I come 
 back." 
 
 There was no answer. Corlies had 
 closed his eyes, and seemed to be falling 
 into a doze. Then Hatfield drew the 
 shade around the candle, and tiptoed out. 
 
CARTY CARTERET'S SISTER 
 
X 
 
 CARTY CARTERET'S SISTER 
 
 ELEANOR," said Miss Carteret, " I 'd 
 like a trap at half-past eleven. Mr. 
 Bennings and I want to drive over to Cap- 
 tain Forbes's. And you '11 come?" she 
 added to Willie Colfax. 
 
 He nodded affably, and helped himself 
 to marmalade. Mr. Bennings looked an- 
 noyed. 
 
 " We 're going to buy horses," she con- 
 tinued. " That is, I 'm going to buy one. 
 Mr. Bennings, I believe, is going to buy a 
 drove." 
 
 Mr. Bennings raised his hand in depre- 
 cation. 
 
 "Aw — I say, not a drove; just a few 
 likely ones," he remarked. 
 
 " Polly Carteret," said Mrs. Braybrooke, 
 197 
 
198 GALLOPS 
 
 " you 're an extravagant goose ! What in 
 the world will you do with a horse ? " 
 
 " I shall give him sugar," Miss Carteret 
 replied. " That will be one thing." 
 
 Mr. James Braybrooke stared at her, 
 gathered up the sporting-pages of the 
 newspaper, and left the table. 
 
 "You 're impossible!" said Mrs. Bray- 
 brooke. She went to the window, and 
 looked out. The Braybrookes' breakfast- 
 room commanded a stretch of rolling lawn 
 set with mighty oaks. The Indian-sum- 
 mer sun was streaming down upon it. 
 
 " You see, Mr. Bennings," observed Miss 
 Carteret, " this is the way they encourage 
 me to patronize Oakdale horses. When I 
 was little I did n't care much about horses, 
 and Eleanor used to make me feel that my 
 life was a failure. Now I want to buy a 
 horse, and she calls me extravagant." 
 
 " It 's getting married," volunteered 
 Willie Colfax. " Don't do it. You lose 
 your nerve and grow economical. One 's 
 always thinking about the little ones who 
 have to be educated and set up in life. 
 Please, more coffee, Nell," he added. 
 
CARTY CARTERET'S SISTER 199 
 
 Mrs. Braybrooke colored. 
 
 " Don't irritate your sister," said Miss 
 Carteret. " I '11 pour it." 
 
 Mr. Bennings seemed to have something 
 on his mind. He held the marmalade-jar 
 suspended in air. 
 
 " But — aw, I say," he observed seriously, 
 " really, now, a good nag, you know, is not 
 a bad investment." 
 
 Mrs. Braybrooke turned from the win- 
 dow, and regarded him with something 
 like a sniff. 
 
 " But she does n't know a good one. 
 Now, I say, if you don't know horses, just 
 be a lady ; only don't pretend. And, Polly 
 Carteret, you don't know any more about 
 horses than" — she looked about as if for 
 a comparison, but found none which was 
 adequate — ''than that!" she exclaimed. 
 "And the way you talk is ridiculous." 
 
 " Mr. Bennings," said Miss Carteret, 
 mildly, "do you believe her?" Mr. Ben- 
 nings deemed himself rather discerning 
 about women. 
 
 " No, 'pon my word, Mrs. Braybrooke," 
 he replied, " honestly, now, I can't believe 
 
200 GALLOPS 
 
 that, you know. You misunderstand Miss 
 Carteret; you really do. We had a long 
 conversation last evening, and she im- 
 pressed me as very well informed — unusu- 
 ally well informed. Perhaps not so keen 
 about racin', you know, but very well up 
 on huntin'-cattle." He set down the mar- 
 malade-jar, and glanced at Miss Carteret 
 for a smile of gratitude ; and Miss Carteret 
 smiled. 
 
 "There!" she said to Mrs. Braybrooke; 
 " I told you I had learned about horses. 
 Don't be so superior." 
 
 Mrs. Braybrooke shot a glance at Ben- 
 nings, and her nostrils quivered. 
 
 " When you finish, come into the morn- 
 ing-room," she remarked. " I want to find 
 Jimmy." She went out, followed by her 
 brother, who was trying to lead her into 
 a discussion of some ideas relative to 
 matrimony. 
 
 " I say," said Bennings, when they were 
 alone, — he spoke confidentially, — "you 
 were chaffin', don't you know, about buyin' 
 a nag to feed him sugar? " 
 
 " I was chaffing," replied Miss Carteret. 
 
CARTY CARTERET'S SISTER 201 
 
 " You ' caught on,' so to speak, very quickly. 
 Seriously, I should never think of buying 
 a horse just to have something to feed 
 sugar to. With so many poor people who 
 can't afford sugar, it would n't be ethical." 
 
 "That 's so," said Bennings; "but at 
 first it did sound just a bit odd, you know. 
 It was a capital joke, though," he added ; 
 " and I do like a joke." 
 
 She dropped her eyelids. 
 
 " I could see that," she said. " I can't 
 tolerate people who don't like jokes." 
 
 "You don't say so!" he exclaimed. 
 "That 's very interesting. You know," 
 he continued, " that 's the only thing I 
 have against an Englishman. Awfully 
 good sort, but no sense of fun, you know. 
 I 've been over there a good deal, but I 
 can't get used to that. I call it the na- 
 tional defect. This chap, you know, — 
 Mark Twain, — he 's noticed the same thing 
 about 'em." This was Bennings's stock 
 conversation on the English people. 
 
 " That 's very interesting, too," observed 
 Miss Carteret. " Will you be ready at 
 half-past eleven?" 
 
202 GALLOPS 
 
 " At your service — always," he ex- 
 claimed, jumping up. Then she went out, 
 and left him to his eggs. 
 
 P. St. Clair Bennings had arrived at 
 Oakdale the afternoon before. The last 
 time Braybrooke had gone to town he 
 had met him at the club, and they had 
 lunched together. As it was October, 
 they naturally discussed hunting-stables, 
 and Braybrooke asked him down to look 
 over Forbes's string before it went to the 
 Horse Show. Bennings was glad to come, 
 and he was pleased to find Miss Carteret 
 stopping there, because he ranked women 
 only after horses. Miss Carteret had made 
 rather quick work with him. He already 
 considered her a " devilish fine girl," and 
 an inner voice had begun to ask whether 
 it might not be generous to shorten his 
 visit. When Bennings first came into his 
 money he bravely faced the fact that he 
 could not both hunt and marry, so he put 
 the latter out of his mind. He had so- 
 journed long in Great Britain (as unkind 
 persons intimated, to make amends for 
 having been born in a New Jersey manu- 
 
CARTY CARTERET'S SISTER 203 
 
 facturing town), and, moreover, by nature 
 he had been endowed with an earnest 
 rather than an acute intellect. There was 
 not much more to be said about him. He 
 rode fairly well. His clothes were distinc- 
 tive. His speech was that version of the 
 cockney speech of England which is pecu- 
 liar to the " American malgre lui" 
 
 Miss Carteret was a school friend of 
 Mrs. Braybrooke's. Their mothers had 
 been connected in some way. She lived 
 in Washington, but she had been born on 
 the James River, which accounted for a 
 throaty, Southern quality in her voice. 
 She spoke slowly, and in her accent there 
 was a soft echo of colored mammies which 
 was attractive. Overlooking such artificial 
 classifications as by complexion and by 
 morals, girls seem to fall into two cate- 
 gories. The members of the first inspire 
 esteem and nothing more. A woman be- 
 longs to the second when men simultane- 
 ously pick up her handkerchief and lurk 
 in wait to put hassocks under her feet. 
 Conversely, a woman's habit of confidently 
 dropping things is also a sign of the type. 
 
204 GALLOPS 
 
 Miss Carteret continually was shedding her 
 handkerchiefs and other portables, and, as 
 a rule, all the available men were adjacent, 
 and anxious to restore them. She was tall 
 and blonde, with a double allowance of 
 pleasing red hair, and her eyes were of a 
 curious dark-blue color. As she herself 
 had remarked, she was intelligent without 
 being hampered by an education. 
 
 The trap which came to the door at 
 half-past eleven was Willie Colfax's tan- 
 dem. Colfax had suggested this substitu- 
 tion of vehicles to avoid the possibility of 
 being packed in behind, and Miss Carteret 
 had accepted it gracefully. She liked any- 
 thing which increased the probability of 
 something happening. " I 'm sure Mr. 
 Bennings won't mind," she remarked; 
 "and if he does, he won't say so." 
 
 She got into the high cart beside Colfax, 
 and looked down pleasantly. 
 
 " I do hope, Mr. Bennings," she said, 
 " that you really don't mind sitting in be- 
 hind with the man, and riding backward. 
 And if you '11 get my parasol — I left it on 
 
CARTY CARTERET'S SISTER 205 
 
 a chair in the hall ; and please ask my maid 
 for my field-glasses; they 're in my room. 
 You know/' she explained to Willie Col- 
 fax, "I 'm getting near-sighted, and I 'm 
 going to look at these horses critically. 
 Besides, the leather case is rather smart." 
 
 "Rubbish!" ejaculated Colfax, jerking 
 the wheeler, who was restless. " Oh, 
 hurry up, Bennings!" he bawled. 
 
 Presently Mr. Bennings appeared, some- 
 what out of breath, and climbed up behind, 
 with the parasol and glasses. 
 
 " Now, if you '11 hold them," remarked 
 Miss Carteret, " I guess we 're all ready." 
 She waved her hand to Mrs. Braybrooke, 
 and they drove off. " Good-by, Elea- 
 nor!" she called. "I 'm going to buy 
 such a nice horsey!" 
 
 Mrs. Braybrooke surveyed her with dis- 
 approval. 
 
 "Jimmy dear," she remarked, when the 
 cart was out of sight, " please, like a good 
 boy, have something saddled, and ride 
 over there. That girl will do something 
 idiotic, and make us ridiculous." 
 
 "Why don't you muzzle her?" said 
 
206 GALLOPS 
 
 Braybrooke. " She 's your friend." Then 
 he went in, and telephoned to the stables. 
 
 As the tandem swung into Forbes's 
 smooth driveway, Mr. Bennings caught a 
 fragment of the conversation which was 
 going on behind him. Thus far he had 
 been occupied in keeping in, for the roads 
 were bad, and they had galloped most of 
 the way. " Well, those are my ideas about 
 horses," Miss Carteret was saying. " I 
 believe in judging a horse according to the 
 things you want him for, just as you would 
 judge dogs or furniture. Seriously, don't 
 you ? " She laughed a little. 
 
 "You '11 be the death of me," replied 
 Mr. Colfax. " Brace up, and don't make 
 a holy show of yourself. You can make 
 Nell and Jimmy as hot as you want, only 
 behave when you 're with me. You don't 
 seem to have any reverence." Bishop 
 Cunningham once had made this comment 
 to him, and he remembered it. Mr. Col- 
 fax's acquaintance with Miss Carteret 
 dated from the nursery, and warranted a 
 certain freedom. " Great Scott!" he ex- 
 
CARTY CARTERET'S SISTER 207 
 
 claimed, catching a glimpse of the veranda, 
 "there 's about a million men there." 
 
 "Shall we go back?" inquired Miss 
 Carteret. 
 
 " Don't be foolish," he muttered. He 
 made a spectacular turn, and laid his thong 
 over the leader. Bennings caught himself 
 when he was nearly out, and twisted 
 around on the seat. 
 
 " But it 's all right, you know," he re- 
 marked. " Forbes is a married man. It 
 will be all right, Miss Carteret." 
 
 "Then of course we need n't go back," 
 replied Miss Carteret. " Thank you, Mr. 
 Bennings. I feel much more comfortable. 
 I 'm rather glad, now, that they 're there. 
 They can help us to choose, can't they?" 
 
 "Why, of course," he said doubtfully. 
 " They are all the fellows, you know, from 
 the club. They 've come over to see 'em 
 led out." 
 
 There was a chorus of " Good morn- 
 ings " as the cart drew up, and a dozen 
 men in tweed breeches and morning-coats 
 lifted their hats and took their smoking- 
 things out of their mouths. 
 
208 GALLOPS 
 
 " Glad to see you," said Forbes, coming 
 down the steps. He had been presented 
 to Miss Carteret before. "The show is 
 waiting. How are you, Bennings? You 
 too, Willie?" 
 
 " Quite well, dear boy," replied Mr. 
 Colfax. " Send somebody to stand by my 
 leader while Cook gets the reins. I 'm 
 going to send 'em to the stable." 
 
 Miss Carteret stood up to be helped out, 
 and the dozen men came forward to assist. 
 Miss Carteret could radiate, so to speak, 
 her appreciation of the civil intentions of 
 strangers, and all the while be impassive 
 and good form. People who had studied 
 her said she did it with her eyes, and it 
 may have been so. At any rate, it was a 
 gift which did not lessen her powers of 
 arousing interest. 
 
 "The Oakdale Raleigh," observed Var- 
 ick, nodding toward Chalmers, " will 
 spread his coat over the wheel, and you 
 may descend." 
 
 Chalmers blushed, and performed that 
 service. Thereupon Miss Carteret got 
 down altogether successfully. She wore 
 exceptionally good boots, for a woman. 
 
CARTY CARTERET'S SISTER 209 
 
 " May I present these fortunate men? " 
 asked Varick. " We shall then suffer 
 Forbes to go ahead with his equine para- 
 dox." At this moment a groom appeared, 
 leading a big raw-boned bay gelding, which 
 he proceeded to trot around the circle of 
 turf in front of the house. A serious 
 silence fell upon the company. 
 
 " He 's not very much to look at yet," 
 Forbes remarked; "but he 's clever, and 
 is going to make a serviceable horse in any 
 kind of going. What do you think of him, 
 Bennings? " 
 
 " A bit rough — a bit rough, old chap," 
 Mr. Bennings replied regretfully. " Don't 
 you agree with me, Miss Carteret?" 
 
 " Oh, quite," said Miss Carteret. 
 " Positively malicious. I don't like his 
 color, either, and he 's too thin." 
 
 Colfax suddenly guffawed, and the men 
 regarded him curiously, and asked him 
 whether he was in pain. 
 
 "By Jove — ' malicious 1 7" exclaimed 
 Mr. Bennings. "That 's capital! And 
 you are correct about his condition. At 
 least, that 's my idea," he added, with a 
 deferential glance at the rest of the com- 
 
210 GALLOPS 
 
 pany. " I must have more flesh at this 
 time of year — ten stone more, at least." 
 Miss Carteret looked at him out of the 
 corner of her eye. " Really, now, Forbes, 
 that fellow would n't last the season," he 
 went on. " But his color will assuredly 
 brighten. Oh, yes ; his color will brighten." 
 
 " Do you think so?" asked Miss Car- 
 teret. " I 'm very particular about color." 
 
 "And quite right — and quite right!" 
 exclaimed Mr. Bennings. " The Duke of 
 Beaufort lays great stress on color. Says 
 you can invariably tell condition by it. 
 Lord Wicke disregards it, but I admit I 
 agree with the duke. It takes a clever 
 eye, though — a devilish clever eye!" 
 
 " I 'm glad to hear you say that," said 
 Miss Carteret. " You know, people some- 
 times laugh at me for judging horses by 
 their color." She was on the point of re- 
 marking that she preferred circus horses, 
 with black and white geographical divi- 
 sions, when Forbes spoke: 
 
 " I '11 have to tell you that if you take 
 anything, I must reserve the right to show 
 in November. I 've got them all entered, 
 
CARTY CARTERET'S SISTER 211 
 
 you see, and they 're being schooled for 
 the green classes.'' 
 
 " Of course that 's all right, Captain 
 Forbes," Miss Carteret answered, with a 
 smile. " And you can keep all the prizes, 
 too; only you really must give me the 
 blue ribbons. I shall have a glass case 
 made, and pin them up in rows." The 
 men laughed, and Varick remarked that 
 it was a very good way to store blue 
 ribbons, only he had never tried it him- 
 self. 
 
 " I say," whispered Bennings to Colfax, 
 " she 's a tremendous chaffer; ain't she?" 
 
 "Is she?" replied Mr. Colfax. 
 
 The talk subsided again as a second 
 horse appeared. It was a big, well-made 
 chestnut with a free, sweeping action, and 
 a showy way of carrying its head. 
 
 "By Jove!" exclaimed Mr. Bennings. 
 " Now, here we are! That 's a rare good 
 one — regular old-country type, is n't it?" 
 He looked at Miss Carteret. 
 
 She hesitated a moment, and surveyed 
 the animal. 
 
 " Without doubt," she replied. " I sup- 
 
212 GALLOPS 
 
 pose," she added gravely, " they must call 
 him Jenson or Black-letter." 
 
 " Yes, of course," said Bennings. He 
 kept his eyes on the horse. " Now, that 
 one will jump like a buck, I '11 wager. 
 Look at his quarters! Ah, what a pair 
 of breeches!" he ejaculated soulfully. 
 "Lovely shoulder, too, is n't it?" Miss 
 Carteret nodded approvingly. " I say, 
 Forbes," he called, " ask your head lad to 
 move him round again, will you ? What 's 
 the price on him? " 
 
 " Fifteen hundred," answered Forbes. 
 " He 's up to any weight. You can see 
 that yourself. What do you think of him, 
 Miss Carteret?" 
 
 Miss Carteret gasped, but disguised it in 
 a little cough. The folly of spending sev- 
 eral satisfactory gowns on one beast struck 
 her forcibly. 
 
 " Well," she said, " this is a rather more 
 expensive type than I want." 
 
 "You are quite right," observed Mr. 
 Bennings, as Forbes moved off. " You 
 know, there is no sense in paying for 
 weight one does n't need, is there ? What 
 do you ride at? " 
 
CARTY CARTERET'S SISTER 213 
 
 Miss Carteret thought earnestly. 
 
 " Really," she replied, " I don't know 
 exactly." She was on the point of add- 
 ing that she had never ridden at anything, 
 but checked herself. 
 
 Bennings looked at her critically. " I 
 should say about ten stone," he observed. 
 
 " I dare say that 's just it," she answered. 
 " In fact, I know it is. I remember, now, 
 distinctly." 
 
 " I have a rather good eye for weight," 
 he remarked. " Hello ! here 's Braybrooke. 
 What 's up, old chap? Thought you 
 were n't coming." 
 
 " Changed my mind," replied Mr. Bray- 
 brooke. " Good lot, are n't they ? " He 
 gave his horse to a groom. 
 
 "They 've only begun," said Bennings. 
 " I fancy this chestnut, though. He must 
 be better than three quarters bred, and ex- 
 cellent bone, too. By the way, if you '11 
 pardon me, you know, Mrs. Braybrooke 
 certainly was mistaken this morning. That 
 girl, you know, has a capital eye, and, by 
 Jove, understands color uncommonly well. 
 She called it on a rangy bay that ought to 
 be fleshed for six months. And you know, 
 
214 GALLOPS 
 
 old chap, that 's a deuced fine point." 
 Braybrooke glanced apprehensively toward 
 the group of men, and fell to studying a 
 cow in the field beyond. " But of course 
 she ought to be a keen one," added Mr. 
 Bennings. " She 's Carty Carteret's sister. 
 You know, I was with Carty at Melton 
 last winter, when he went through thirty 
 minutes with a broken shoulder-blade." 
 
 "Really!" observed Braybrooke. He 
 was still considering the cow. 
 
 As the next horse was led out, he 
 caught Miss Carteret's eye, and beckoned 
 her aside. " Have you bought anything 
 yet? " he inquired. 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 " Well, as a personal favor, I wish you 
 would n't. You see, we 've got a stable 
 full that you can ride whenever you want, 
 and you 'd only pay twelve or fifteen hun- 
 dred for something that would be very 
 likely too much for you when you got him. 
 If you must own something, pick up a 
 cheap pony to hack about." 
 
 "All right," said the girl. "You 're 
 really a very nice boy, Jimmy, and I don't 
 
CARTY CARTERET'S SISTER 215 
 
 like to tease you. But you need n't say 
 anything to Captain Forbes." 
 
 Just then Forbes and Varick came up. 
 
 "What do you think of this one?" 
 inquired Forbes, nodding toward a well- 
 turned little black mare. 
 
 " Perfectly sweet," Miss Carteret an- 
 swered. " But I think I '11 watch the rest 
 from the veranda. It 's too hot here." 
 She turned to Varick. " Will you come 
 up and tell me all about them?" she 
 asked. 
 
 He looked at her curiously. 
 
 " I dare say you know a great deal more 
 about such things than I do," he said. He 
 dragged a steamer-chair into position. 
 " You see, I 'm only an amateur, a dilet- 
 tante," — he noted the way she was turned 
 out, — "and you — well, you 're Carty Car- 
 teret's sister." 
 
 She threw her head back and laughed. 
 
 " Two weeks ago," she said, " I read six 
 pages of a book called ' The Anatomy of 
 the Horse.' That 's all I know. You see," 
 she went on confidentially, " Eleanor and 
 Carty have made my life a burden. The 
 
216 GALLOPS 
 
 more they talked horse, the more I de- 
 spised the whole thing. But you are out 
 of it here if you don't like horses, so when 
 Nell asked me down I thought I 'd try a 
 new tack. You see, I 've suspected all 
 along that they did n't understand half the 
 things they said. They just mumble gib- 
 berish, like that unfortunate Mr. Bennings 
 — now, don't they? " 
 
 " I must decline to answer," replied Var- 
 ick. " It might incriminate me." 
 
 "There, I knew it!" she exclaimed tri- 
 umphantly. " I just decided to cram up a 
 little, and look knowing; and then I got 
 all these clothes. I knew I could fool 
 them. I can't take in Nell and Willie, of 
 course; so I practise on them, and when 
 they tell me I 'm foolish I know enough 
 not to say that again. It 's really been 
 amusing. Mr. Bennings thoroughly be- 
 lieves in me." She stopped, and watched 
 the little knots of men in the roadway. 
 " Are all those grown men honestly poring 
 over that horse? " she asked. 
 
 "They are," said Varick. "An occa- 
 sion like this is a sacrament to them." 
 
CARTY CARTERET'S SISTER 217 
 
 " How funny it is, when you think about 
 it!" she exclaimed. " And do they really 
 find out all sorts of things when they feel 
 his legs and look at his teeth? " 
 
 "They really do," said Varick. " In a 
 rudimentary way, I can do it myself." 
 
 "Well," she sighed, "it 's beyond me. 
 It 's like a telegraph ticking. I hear it, 
 but I can't understand what it means. I 
 know a white horse from a brown one, and 
 I have a preference for long tails, which I 
 consider sensible. You see, when you are 
 driving, it 's the tail you see most of, is n't 
 it? A system of judging horses by their 
 tails would appeal to me. But what dif- 
 ference does it make whether a horse has 
 fluted colonial legs, or smooth round ones ? 
 Absolutely none!" 
 
 " Please, a little lower," suggested Van 
 ick. " Somebody might hear." 
 
 She laughed. 
 
 " But seriously," she continued, " I 
 should like to get a horse with a long tail. 
 My father insists on having his horses 
 docked, and I 'm sick of them. They 
 did n't use to do it. My grandfather used 
 
218 GALLOPS 
 
 to take me driving with a pair of thorough- 
 breds that had tails that touched the 
 ground, and they could trot — I don't know 
 how fast! — in a minute, I think." 
 
 " Do you remember," said Varick, art- 
 lessly, u that there was a time — you must 
 remember it — when your mother wore very 
 tight sleeves?" 
 
 "Thank you," she replied. "I 've 
 trunks full of them myself. But people 
 are the only animals silly enough to 
 have fashions. It 's wicked to put horses 
 on the same basis." 
 
 She looked down the lawn toward the 
 gateway, where something passing behind 
 the shrubbery attracted her attention. In 
 a moment a fat, undersized gray horse 
 j°gg e d into view, drawing a shabby 
 Hempstead cart. Presently he subsided 
 into a sober walk. From his rough coat 
 and fetlocks he seemed to be of Percheron 
 origin. As he drew nearer a fly attacked 
 him, and he switched a superb tail. 
 
 "There!" exclaimed Miss Carteret. 
 "That is the kind of horse I really want. 
 Just look at that tail!" 
 
CARTY CARTERET'S SISTER 219 
 
 " Good heavens," cried Varick, " but 
 you must n't!" 
 
 She seemed not to hear him. 
 
 " Do you think," she went on, " that no 
 one would take me seriously if I bought 
 that horse? " Varick chuckled. " I have 
 a little plan," she added, and went down 
 the steps. 
 
 " Glad to see you are going to join us 
 again," said Mr. Bennings, bowing pro- 
 fusely. 
 
 " Mr. Bennings," said Miss Carteret, " if 
 I buy a horse, will you ride him home?" 
 
 Mr. Bennings beamed. 
 
 "My dear Miss Carteret," he cried, 
 " anything! Anywhere ! ' ' 
 
 " Thank you so much," she said sweetly. 
 She turned away, and went over to Forbes 
 and Galloway. 
 
 " Captain Forbes," she said, " Mr. Ben- 
 nings has promised to ride my horse home. 
 He 's been very nice to me, and I really 
 think he would like to do it. Besides, he 
 is a good horseman, and I feel that I can 
 trust him. I want to buy that gray horse 
 in the cart." 
 
220 GALLOPS 
 
 Forbes and Galloway looked at each 
 other and then at Mr. Bennings. They 
 showed symptoms of exploding. 
 
 " Please be very serious," she said. 
 " What 's his name, and how much is 
 he?" 
 
 " His name," replied Forbes, gravely, 
 " is Birdofreedom, and he does my mar- 
 keting. I have never considered offering 
 him for sale. He is worth about fifty 
 dollars to me, though that may be extor- 
 tionate." 
 
 " It is," said Galloway; " say ten." 
 
 " No," replied Miss Carteret; " I 'm not 
 going to bargain with you. I '11 send you 
 a check to-morrow for fifty dollars. Will 
 you have him saddled and brought down 
 when the cart comes? I don't want to 
 keep Mr. Bennings waiting. No," she re- 
 plied to Forbes's invitation; "we can't 
 stop to lunch. We promised Mrs. Bray- 
 brooke we 'd be back. Besides, I want 
 her to see my horse. You know, she 
 thinks I don't know anything about horses." 
 
 " I say," gasped Galloway, his sides shak- 
 ing, " Bennings will never get over this!" 
 
CARTY CARTERET'S SISTER 221 
 
 "Get over what?" said Miss Carteret, 
 innocently. She nodded to Varick, and he 
 joined her. " I 've bought him," she said, 
 " and Mr. Bennings is going to ride him 
 home. You won't tell about our talk, will 
 you?" 
 
 Varick replied with difficulty. 
 
 " No," he said ; "lam your dumb slave. 
 Hello! there 's your trap." 
 
 Willie Colfax drove up to the old-fash- 
 ioned horse-block, and stopped. 
 
 " Better hurry up ! " he called. " We 're 
 late now. Good-by, Forbes; sorry we 
 can't stop." 
 
 " Sorry too," said Forbes. He turned 
 to Miss Carteret, and helped her up. 
 " They 're getting your horse out as fast 
 as possible. Bennings won't mind waiting. 
 We '11 give him something to drink." 
 
 " Very well," said Miss Carteret. " Per- 
 haps I would just as soon not see Mr. 
 Bennings start off. You won't mind wait- 
 ing a minute? " she called to him. " You 
 can overtake us, you know, and Jimmy 
 will wait, too. Good-by." 
 
 " What was all that? " demanded Willie 
 
222 GALLOPS 
 
 Colfax. He swung his thong, and the 
 horses went away at a gallop. 
 
 Miss Carteret explained. What she said 
 was accurate, as far as it went. She con- 
 sidered it unnecessary, however, to dwell 
 upon her own feelings toward Birdofree- 
 dom. 
 
 "Well," said Mr. Colfax, "you 're a 
 peach!" 
 
 " And you '11 wait and let them catch 
 up? " she asked. 
 
 " We certainly must give Nell the pro- 
 cession effect," he observed. Instead of 
 waiting, however, he tore around a two- 
 mile loop, which brought them to the 
 Braybrookes' gateway just as Braybrooke 
 and Mr. Bennings were arriving. 
 
 Mrs. Braybrooke was on the steps as they 
 drove up. They were late. 
 
 " What 's that Mr. Bennings is riding? " 
 she demanded. 
 
 " That," said Miss Carteret, proudly, " is 
 my horse." 
 
 Birdofreedom approached, and Mrs. 
 Braybrooke studied him. 
 
 "Polly Carteret!" she exclaimed, — it 
 
CARTY CARTERET'S SISTER 223 
 
 was almost a scream, — " what on earth do 
 you mean? — Jimmy!" 
 
 " He 's virtually sound," said Bray- 
 brooke. 
 
 His wife turned and stalked into the 
 house. 
 
 ''There, now, Mr. Bennings," said Miss 
 Carteret, mournfully, " you see how a 
 horse will separate friends!" 
 
 "Aw — certainly," said Mr. Bennings. 
 " Will you kindly ring for somebody from 
 the stables?" His manner was stiff. He 
 realized that he had overrated Miss Car- 
 teret's eye for horse-flesh. " Just fawncy 
 buyin' such a brute!" he said to himself. 
 "Just fawncy!" The girl was a disap- 
 pointment. It mortified him to misjudge 
 people, and he went back to town that night. 
 
 According to the account which Varick 
 afterward gave Miss Carteret of Forbes's 
 lunch-party, it had been notable for two 
 reasons. First, "horse" was neglected in 
 a manner without precedent. 
 
 " You see," said Varick, " it was unani- 
 mously concluded, something more than a 
 
224 GALLOPS 
 
 dozen times, that you were a bully girl, 
 and had revenged the American people on 
 that ass Bennings. That took up nearly 
 all the time. And besides the absence of 
 1 horse,' there was an interesting display of 
 woman nature. When Mrs. Forbes heard 
 the story, she remarked in her quiet way : 
 ' Well, I don't see how there was any joke 
 on Mr. Bennings. I just think that girl 
 took a fancy to Birdofreedom, and I 'm 
 sorry he 's sold. He had such a lovely 
 tail!' Naturally the laugh was on Mrs. 
 Forbes." Here both Varick and Miss 
 Carteret smiled. " You know, she distin- 
 guishes a horse from a cow, and that 's 
 about all. She devotes her life to six 
 children. When we had got through enjoy- 
 ing the joke, Forbes said reproachfully (it 
 mortifies him to have his wife display her 
 ignorance) : ' Perhaps you don't know, my 
 dear, that she 's Carty Carteret's sister. If 
 you think best, I '11 explain about Bennings 
 later.' " 
 
 When Varick finished this recital Miss 
 Carteret extended her hand and let him 
 
CARTY CARTERET'S SISTER 225 
 
 hold it longer than was really necessary. 
 She was a very honorable girl about rec- 
 ognizing her obligations. 
 
 " I shall keep away from Mrs. Forbes," 
 she said. 
 
 Miss Carteret was much interested in 
 what Varick had told her. It explained 
 certain things which had puzzled her, and 
 she disliked being puzzled. When they 
 had sat down to their own lunch on the 
 day of Birdofreedom's purchase, Bray- 
 brooke had been severe and dismal. He 
 had made her feel that she had disgraced 
 the family. But in the middle of the meal 
 he had been called to the telephone, and 
 had come back affable — more than affable, 
 for he was talkative, and called her a " bad 
 girl." She knew then that something had 
 come over the wire which reinstated her. 
 The fact was that Galloway had telephoned 
 from Forbes's an invitation to dinner which 
 he had forgotten to deliver; and before he 
 rang off he had added : 
 
 " I say, Brooky, the Carteret girl 's a 
 queen. I 'd give my jumping cow to get 
 
226 GALLOPS 
 
 as good a one on that beast Bennings. 
 Forbes and Varick have let the thing out." 
 
 " What thing? " said Braybrooke. 
 
 " Why, buying that plug for a joke, you 
 foolish," said Galloway. " Are n't you 
 'on' yet? Ta-ta!" 
 
Ifebster Family Library of Veterinary Medietas 
 
 lgs School of Veterinary Medicine at 
 
 Tufts University 
 
 200 Westboro Road 
 
 North Grafton, MA 01536