OWNERS AND OWNING 65 



to get rid of them as soon as possible. The two 

 were sold for £10 each to go to Belgium ; what 

 they did in the dominions of King Leopold I 

 never heard, but if they won races the others 

 must have been very bad. 



" It is disappointing ! " I remarked. " Let me 

 see, the four cost well over 2,000, and I suppose 

 they are not worth 400 ? " 



" I'm afraid not," was the reply, and on being 

 asked to appraise the value, he said he feared they 

 would not bring more than half as much. 



It was disappointing ! I had thought that one of 

 the lot might perhaps go wrong, that another, 

 possibly two of them, might not turn out well, but 

 then I should have half a dozen to take round to 

 the big meetings ; and as for the selling races that 

 I had despised — I well remembered my reply when 

 it was suggested that I should buy the plater — the 

 difficulty now was to find races of the sort small 

 enough for the two that my modest trial horse had 

 so easily beaten. One ran at Warwick and was 

 claimed for £150, the other failed twice, and after 

 the second attempt was put up at Sandown to be 

 sold for what he would fetch, which was 33 

 guineas ; so that my trainer's estimate of jC^^o for 

 the lot was singularly near the mark. 



But there still remained the Treasure, and the 



F 



