THE HAUGHTYSHIRE HUNT. loi 



the vacuous blue eye had no latent mischief in it ; it looked 

 simply stately in its solid idiotcy. 



"You'd like to see the horse out, sir, wouldn't you? Can 

 see him over the fences — ride him over 'em, if you like. 

 Strip this horse, Palmer," turning to the head man. " That'll 

 do. Now go and tell Tom to bring a saddle and bridle. These 

 gentlemen would like to see him over the fences." 



'Honest Edward' then led the way out into the yard 

 again, and pressed his customers to have just one glass more 

 of the brown sherry in his office. He thought, by the look of 

 him, that Travers might very likely need a little ' jumping 

 powder ' before he summoned up courage enough to get on to 

 a strange horse, and ride him over fences. It was necessary 

 also — or at all events, highly desirable — that they should not 

 be present when the Eoman-nosed one emerged from the 

 stable, for, truth to tell, he required a little of the ' warming 

 up ' process before being at his best. He was a good horse, 

 and had been worth a lot of money in his day ; but at fourteen 

 (which was his real age) it may be well imagined that he was 

 a bit stiff on first coming out. 



As to his fencing capabilities, 'you couldn't get him down,' 

 as the saying goes, and nothing short of an earthquake, or 

 President Kruger's Indemnity Bill, would suffice to frighten 

 him. The dealer knew he was playing quite a safe card in 

 showing the veteran over fences. 



After Tom (whose mission in life it was to ride anything at 

 anything, for the modest weekly stipend of 1/.) had ridden the 

 old horse over the bushed-up hurdles, the water — supplied 

 by a length of hose into a dug-out ditch, dammed (and 

 pretty freely, too, sometimes) at one end — and a low, white- 



