€imct ^oltJ. 155 



more, nevertheless, than Tom had himself secured 

 him for scarcely a month earlier. 



Hounds were a good way fromi their kennels, and 

 clean out of their own country, so, as the nearest 

 covert they could draw was some seven miles 

 distant, " Home " was the order, and thither, in 

 this direction and in that, the little group of horse- 

 men dispersed ; one alone diverging from his direct 

 road to accompany our hero, whose honesty (if not 

 his wits !) was too severely taxed when his companion 

 — who was no other than the wealthy Mr. Vane, of 

 the Stock Exchange — offered him, after a good deal 

 of fencing the subject on Tom's part, for which 

 such little conscience as he had was, perhaps, 

 responsible, a cool 200 for his mount. The fact 

 that the grey had, before his arrival on the scene, 

 become the property of the M.F.H. being, of course, 

 unknown to Mr. Vane. 



Tom could not resist so tempting a second offer, 

 so accepted it, like the sad rogue I fear he was, 

 promising, as in the Squire's case, to send the horse 

 over, without fail, on Monday. And then, at the 

 next cross roads, he bid Mr. Vane good day, with as 

 long a face as that of a priest performing absolution. 

 How Mr. Scorer then pushed briskly on home, how 

 he went up to London dinnerless by the next train, 

 and how, when there, he set the wires in motion in 



