I40 THE RACING WORLD 



in the year in question the runners were excep- 

 tionally numerous — forty-three. That they would 

 get off speedily seemed improbable, and the judge 

 sat in his box contemplating the landscape 

 before him. It was a very sultry afternoon ; a 

 shimmering heat seemed to rise from the earth ; 

 on the hillside opposite to him a flock of sheep 

 were feeding and he watched them as they fed ; 

 gradually they seemed to fade away, and the next 

 thing he remembered was being violently shaken 

 by a policeman, who pointed to the rapidly ad- 

 vancing field now within forty or fifty yards of 

 the box. The judge had barely time to pull 

 himself together when the leaders flashed past 

 the post. 



It would have been a catastrophe indeed if Mr. 

 Clark had continued to slumber while the horses 

 galloped home, and certainly those who won on 

 the race — I never had a bet in my life, so am 

 ignorant of the sensation of winning — had cause 

 to be grateful to that vigilant constable. Few 

 people, I imagine, can realise what the owner 

 of the winner would have felt if after going 

 through weeks of anxiety and hope and fear, he 

 had seen his horse defeat the field fairly and 

 squarely and then heard that it was " no race." 

 It would have been bad enough had the winner 



