3 8 KINGSCLERE 



At Doncaster, in the September of the season 

 which followed the utterance of Doyle's vow at 

 Ascot, Wells weighed out for Blue Gown in the 

 Champagne Stakes — weighed out, be it observed, 

 ' that way,' with a ' touch and — go ' ; and Doyle, 

 who had laid his plans for the startling disclosure 

 which followed, had scanned the operation with a 

 ca/eful, if malign, eye. Blue Gown, on whom they 

 laid odds of 2 to 1, came in first, with Virtue, 

 ridden by Snowden, next. On entering the room 

 to weigh in and be passed by the clerk, Wells 

 dropped one of his small saddlecloths. Doyle, who 

 had grimly stuck to his victim's heels, thereupon 

 exclaimed, ' Here ! you weighed out with this cloth ; 

 weigh in with it.' The exclamation was like a 

 match to a train of gunpowder. It was evident to 

 the spectators — some of whom were, no doubt, in 

 the know — who crowded up to the barrier, that 

 something unusual was in progress. Before, how- 

 ever, the extreme importance of the business could 

 be realised, the clerk of the scales, at the instigation 

 of the owner of Virtue, the second in the race, 

 ordered Wells to remain in the scale, and remove 

 his feet from the ground. Doyle had kept his 

 word. That was his innings. A trial of the excess, 

 brief but solemn, and carried out amid a silence 

 which could be felt, proved that Wells was more 

 than two pounds over weight, and Blue Gown was 

 thereupon disqualified and the race awarded to the 

 mare. Admiral Rous, who was present, lost his 

 temper. It may be said, indeed— for such a loss 



