214 SAM DARLING'S REMINISCENCES 



ride, and we visited his bungalow and rode all 

 round the mountains with him. We made the 

 Constant Springs Hotel our head- quarters ; and one 

 morning, as we were just going out, I was rather 

 surprised to find Mr. Ben Tillett, who had come over 

 Ben on our boat, asking me if I could pick 

 horseman- ^^* ^ °^^® quiet pony for him to ride, 

 sWp from the lot which were out for in- 

 spection. For what reason I am unable to tell, 

 the pony I selected must have thrown Mr. Tillett 

 very violently, for I never saw a man's face in a 

 worse state than his on his return to the hotel. 



After we had been there a few days there was a 

 race meeting, and one of the sporting owners came 

 Jamaican ^^^ asked me if I would allow my son 

 jockeyship ^o ride. I said, " With pleasure," and 

 he won, riding against niggers. He won on a 

 horse called Haei Kari. The next day he promised 

 to ride this horse again, and I heard that the native 

 jockeys were going to play tricks with him — i.e. 

 to ride foully — so I told Fred that this would 

 probably occur at the last turn. They would race 

 away in front and give him an opening to come 

 up between, and then close up and shut him out ; 

 but I said : 



" You make a feint, as if you were going to take 

 that opening, and shp up on the outside as quick 

 as you can, and they will be bumping each other 



