POISONING RACE-HOESES. 35 



might have turned his hand to better things. 

 Apparently his object was not to kill the horses 

 which drank at the poisoned trough, but to in- 

 capacitate them from winning a race for several 

 days after. In some mysterious way a warning 

 was conveyed to Mr Prince, cautioning him against 

 watering his horses at a particular trough. For 

 a time he acted upon this advice, and Dan Dawson, 

 who for obvious reasons carefully abstained from 

 being seen near the trough, came to the conclusion 

 that Cecil Bishop had made a mistake, and that 

 enough arsenic had not been mixed with the water, 

 seeing that Mr Prince's horses continued to go in 

 their usual form. He proceeded, therefore, in the 

 middle of the night to inject a stronger dose of 

 arsenic through a tube which he inserted under 

 the lid. This tube was stuck into the neck of a 

 bottle full of a strong solution of arsenic. It was 

 subsequently discovered that one quart of the 

 water thus impregnated by this unprincipled 

 scoundrel was more than sufficient to kill the 

 strongest horse. 



One morning Mr Prince's horses were out as 

 usual for exercise, and when they had finished 

 their gallops the weather suddenly became very 

 hot and sultry. Mr Prince remarked to my father, 

 who was riding by his side, " This rumour about 

 the troughs being poisoned seems to me ' gammon,' 

 as I have heard nothing about it for a long time." 

 My father replied, " Nevertheless, were I you, I 



