REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 115 



figure, Jimmy not claiming any share. Jimmy piloted Bowrar 

 Bill in the first race, got in second to Snowdrop, but sure 

 enough the horse pulled up dead lame, and the Stewards said 

 he need not start for the Selling Race. Even this did not satisfy 

 the suspicious Vet, who sneeringly observed " Oh he's always 

 lame." Jimmy merely answered, "You lie, he's never been 

 lame before, if you want to start the horse, buy him." Elphick 

 swallowed the affront and eagerly said " How much." " A thou- 

 sand rupees," said Jimmy. " Done," said Elphick, but no one, 

 either professional or amateur, would ride such a mad tearing 

 devil, and Elphick was far too faint-hearted to get up himself, 

 so he came whining to Jimmy and coaxed him to ride. The 

 poor horse was in such pain, that twice in the race he got off 

 the course on to the softer going in the field, and it was in trying 

 to avoid the distance post the accident occurred. Elphick had 

 a bad bargain, for he was only able to bring Bowrar Bill once 

 to the post, and that in a match in Calcutta, which he lost, 

 and a ticca gharry was the poor beast's eventual fate. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

 YEAR 1878. 



Just before the meeting of 1878 came off, the Jaintpore 

 Stable was very nearly being a thing of the past, for its 

 master was as close on being welcomed by old Clooty instead of 

 filling our races, as he well could be. He had another narrow 

 squeak this time, through handling a snake of the krait species, 

 which is so deadly that there is a native saying about it that 

 after its bite, it does not give the patient time to drink water. 



The scene of this adventure, a narrator of the occurrence 

 writing to the Civil and Military Gazette says, was at 

 Jaintpore. " Abbott looked upon all snakes as ' warmint/ to 

 be killed at sight, but his way of doing it was unique. His 

 ordinary custom, whenever he came across them, was to pick 

 them up by the tails and dash their heads against the ground. 



