194 THE MERRY GEE-GEE 



must have mystery, or he's not ''in the 

 know." 



My child, my dear, trustful, innocent 

 child, there's not half, nor a tenth part the 

 mystery in it all you imagine, and when 

 there is you won't know until after, and 

 most likely not then. You make no 

 allowance for in and out running. You 

 can't seem to understand that horses are 

 not like machines, so many pounds of 

 steam and a given speed. You know 

 nothing of slips, bad starts, suppressed 

 coughs, bumpings, some other horse come 

 on and another gone off. It is unsavoury 

 to you to think that in the Stewards' Cup 

 of twenty runners everybody connected 

 with quite ten of them are sanguine of 

 success, that is not mysterious enough for 

 you, but it is nevertheless a fact. When 

 the horse you've backed is beat you give 

 expression to a doubt you had entertained 



