MARLBOROUGH COLLEGE. 87 



raise his eyes, as though in mute surprise that there could be any 

 difficuhy, and blandly ask, " Why don't you run arter him kipper?" 



" Why don't I run arter him," the guardian of the stream replied, 

 spitting on the ground in sheer disgust after the manner of Orientals, 

 " Why I might as well run arter a greyhound." 



In after years, when I went to Haileybury, the Indian Civil Service 

 College of those days, I found the foot races a great institution 

 there. But as I was a dark horse, I was nowhere in the betting, 

 and my immediate friends expressed surprise when they heard I had 

 entered for the "Derby," or " Hundred yards." One of the favourites 

 invited me to have a trial spurt with him, in order to see what I 

 could do. But although I by no means had forgotten the lesson 

 taught me by the Marlborough doctor on the subject of deceit, I 

 thought I might fairly decline to expose my hand by shewing this 

 rival competitor my heels just then. And the result of the trial 

 spurt, which soon got noised abroad, was that I should probably be 

 nowhere in the race. 



But I felt contident that if once I got ahead no one would ever 

 catch me : and so it proved to be, for I came in first, and won a gold- 

 mounted racing whip in a presentation case, which was the prize 

 awarded. I ought to have got something much more valuable, 

 considering the amount of money collected for the races. But the 

 system in vogue regarding the purchase of the prizes was utterly 

 bad and scandalous, to use no harsher term. The three stewards 

 went to London to purchase the prizes with a carte blanche given 

 — by no one knew whom — to spend as much as they chose upon 

 themselves, after the fashion of the prodigal son, vivendo luxuriose, 

 or in riotous living, and they made no secret on their return of 

 having enjoyed themselves, or to use their own words, " In having 

 had their fling" at our expense. I dare say they excused themselves 

 in the words of Tacitus, quoted in Paley's Evidences, 



"Hi ritus quoquo modo inducti, antiquitate defenduntur. 



But this was poor consolation to the prize winners. I also won the 



