IN THE KELLY COUNTRY 



being propitious to a new venture, and frequently I 

 have had to think there is something in it. I remember 

 once at a jumping meeting near Paris that a man asked 

 me as a favour to put him five louis on a certain horse. 

 I am quite sure that I did not mistake what he said 

 and came back with the tickets and told him what I 

 had done. Both he and his friends said I was wrong : 

 I should have backed the favourite for him. He was 

 not exactly nasty over it, but obviously thought that I 

 had thrown his money away for him. I would take no 

 denial, but went straight away and repaired the error, 

 giving him his two fifty-franc tickets and being quite 

 cheerful about keeping the others for myself. " It's 

 all right now," I said; " isn't it ? " " Thanks very 

 much," he replied, " but I hardly like to stick you in 

 with those others." Rather airily I cried : " Oh, 

 five louis are neither here nor there. I've got a run for 

 my money at all events." He suggested that as the 

 mistake had been made he would take half the bet, but 

 I would only let him stand in to the extent of twenty 

 francs, at which he seemed relieved. The favourite 

 fell at the second fence, two others ran out, and 

 although No. 7 pecked badly at the last jump the late 

 " Tuppenny " Wright pulled him together to get the 

 run of a solitary opponent who had stuck to him all 

 through. He paid two hundred and eighty francs for 

 ten francs. Through my " mistake " the other chap 

 won money, while I picked up a nice little bit by a 

 fluke. 



It was from the bush town in New South Wales 

 I have just spoken of that I rode sixty miles to the 

 Jerilderie Races — another small township, but attrac- 

 tive, as there was to be a gamble on a hack which had 

 come over from my town to run in the hack race. 

 He was really a thoroughbred hurdler, but came under 



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