HooJ Beats 



off in this 'eat some day like a kiddy's balloon' 

 and 'e takes 'im under the arm, and the others 

 can 'ear 'em go out o' the door, the colonel still 

 splutterin' and gaspin' for breath. 



"That's the way I 'ears it, from Dawson, 'ead 

 man at the bar, and 'e says that 'e and five others 

 keeps busy all night servin' drinks and that ten 

 thousand rupees were writ in the book, on the race 

 to follow. It's to be run in a week — and this is 

 Saturday night — over the old Delhi steeplechase 

 course — four mile and a 'arf — think o' that! They 

 makes it that long, so's there's no chance for a 

 fluke, and the best 'un must win in the end. 



"Now, the capt'in's got a couple o' good 'uns 

 that cawn't be matched near or far, as no one 

 knows better than me, sir, as often sleeps in their 

 stalls, and tended 'em like children on the voyage 

 from Liverpool. 'E's also got one other such as no 

 one ever saw, that the capt'in takes more pride in 

 than 'e does the cross 'e sometimes wears when 

 we're re^dewed by'is Royal Majesty or 'is 'Ighness, 

 the Prince of Wales. This other, I own it, is a 

 hanimal that's 'ard to beat, for 'e'd do 'is slowest 

 quarter in a bit under twenty-six. 'E's out of a 

 famous English racing mare by a fresh little 

 Arabian donkey that prides 'isself, too, on 'is 

 forefathers and 'is dead-game sportin' blood. 

 Yet, it's a mule, sir, a sixteen-'and mule as white 

 88 



