64 OINEY O'SHEA. 



"Well, she is your mare," said Claret's rider, 

 " and you can do what you please with her, but if I 

 were in your place I would see what a switch would 

 do on her when she wants to come back. I was taught 

 to learn all I could about a horse before getting him 

 into a race, as then I would know what to do when 

 pinched." 



"True for you," said Floyd, and swinging round on 

 his heel he asked me to cut a switch from a clump of 

 bushes that stood in the corner of a snake fence about 

 fifty yards below the half-mile mark on the road. 



Climbing over the fence I approached the bushes 

 from the field side, and as I did so, my heart almost 

 jumped into my mouth as I saw what appeared to be a 

 dead man lying between the bushes and the fence. 

 He was watching me like a cat watching a mouse. As 

 soon as I caught sight of him he put his finger on his 

 lips and nodded. He did not offer to say a word to 

 me nor I to him. After selecting a switch I trimmed 

 the leaves off it, hopped over the fence and handed it 

 to Floyd. He put it behind his back and slipped it up 

 to the boy on Maud without her noticing it. 



The third heat was run under the same conditions 

 as the second. As they approached a tree standing 

 near the half mile mark, the boy on Maud tapped her 

 lightly with the switch. She came away from it like 

 an arrow from the bow, but as she passed the half she 

 began to stop. Then he struck her in earnest, and 

 instead of scudding on after Claret, who had shot by, 

 she swerved and almost threw him in the ditch. Then 

 there was a time. The boy slipped down as soon as 

 he could, while Maud acted like a crazy thing. Her 

 eyes blazed like balls of fire, while she lashed out when 



