30 The Chase 



didn't want to sell his horse getting a bid of half 

 as much again as the horse was worth. You'll be 

 lucky if you get a hundred." 



Keating rode up now, and the transaction be- 

 came more complicated. It ended in the purchase 

 of the horse by Bryce for a hundred and twenty, 

 to be paid on the delivery of Wildfire, safe and 

 sound, at the Batherley stables. It did occur to 

 Dunsey that it might be wise for him to give up 

 the day's hunting, proceed at once to Batherley, 

 and having waited for Bryce's return, hire a horse 

 to carry him home with the money in his pocket. 

 But the inclination for a run, encouraged by con- 

 fidence in his luck, and by a draught of brandy 

 from his pocket-pistol at the conclusion of the 

 bargain, was not easy to overcome, especially with 

 a horse under him that would take the fences to 

 the admiration of the field. Dunstan, however, 

 took one fence too many, and got his horse pierced 

 with a hedge-stake. His own ill-favoured person, 

 which was quite unmarketable, escaped without 

 injury ; but poor Wildfire, unconscious of his 

 price, turned on his flank, and painfully panted 

 his last. 



It happened that Dunstan, a short time before, 

 having had to get down to arrange his stirrup, had 

 muttered a good many curses at this interruption, 

 which had thrown him in the rear of the hunt 

 near the moment of glory, and under this ex- 

 asperation had taken the fences more blindly. He 

 would soon have been up with the hounds again, 

 when the fatal accident happened ; and hence he 

 was between eager riders in advance, not troubling 

 themselves about what happened behind them, and 

 far-of} stragglers, who were as likely as not to pass 

 quite aloof from the line of road in which Wildfire 



