BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON. 65 



With ^\'hich satirical observation Mark Hartbrook vanished. 

 The scene in the dining-room as mine host entered was 

 Hterally one of admired disorder. Half a dozen men were 

 speaking at once, and two members of the company were ac- 

 centuating their remarks by means of gestures that betokened 

 anger. One was the Squire, who had risen his height — upwards 

 of six feet — and was standing with his back to the uncertain 

 mirror at the president's end of the table, confronting, with 

 flushed face and dangerous eyes, his opponent, Captain Dykely, 

 a thin-lipped, dark-haired, wiry man of pallid complexion. The 

 v^oices could scarcely be said to mingle ; Whinridge's was at the 

 top of the entire discordant chorus of expostulation. He turned 

 as Hartbrook entered, and, passing one hand through his yet 

 luxuriant curls — in colour a slightly grizzled auburn — he folded 

 his arms across his chest, and said, 

 ' Hartbrook, I want you.' 

 ' I am at your service, sir.' 



' My friend' — a slightly sinister emphasis on the word friend 

 — ' my fi'ieiid Captain Dykely and myself have had a dispute, 

 and we want you to decide it.' 



' If you can,' interposed the Captain, in a voice and manner 

 that a less irritable person than the Squire would have deemed 

 exasperating. 



' I knoiv he can, sir ; and that ought to suffice. Now listen. 

 You were on the holm to-day, and you saw the race for the 

 Cup?' 



' I did, sir.' 



* Very good. Now what do you know about Fluefaker, 

 Captain Dykely's horse ? Is he not — ' 



' Squire ! — Squire !' protested several of the company. 

 ' You are right, gentlemen. I will not put a leading question. 

 Well— Fluefaker?' 



' Is a son of Agrimony and Fluff. Did nothing as a two- 

 year-old. Was beaten when he was backed by the public, and 

 won a couple of plates when he wasn't, at three. Was bought 

 out of a selling race, and tried over hurdles at four. That is all 

 I know. How he came to be qualified to run to-day for the 

 Hunt Cup is what I do not know.' 



' What did I say, gentlemen ? That this horse was not a 

 genuine hunter. That having been out a few times and looked 

 on, whereby he got that trumpery certificate from a M.F.H., was 

 not a proper qualification ; and I repeat my words,' here Mr. 



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