274 Did you ever Drive a Jibber down to a Fight ? 



was something inimitable in the manner in which he mimicked the 

 Capten's rage when he was supposed to receive my note. I was 

 now in a terrible fidget to get away, for I would not have had the 

 Capten walk into the yard just then for a trifle. So I mounted my 

 horse directly, and it was not until I had left the old town some 

 miles behind me that I pulled up at a little roadside inn to get my 

 dinner, which I now began to want, having eaten nothing since 

 morning. I think I never enjoyed a beefsteak so much in my life ; 

 and I did not hurry, for I knew the Capten was safe enough in 

 Cambridge, and not likely to walk into this little parlour and spoil 

 my meal. 



I got home that night, and for several days after rather nervously 

 looked over my letters before I opened them, in case I should recog- 

 nise the Capten's bold superscription on the outside of one. But, 

 strange to say, I never received a line from him, and I did not see 

 him again till, on going into the starting-field at the next " New- 

 port Pagnall," I spied the identical dog-cart and the Capten's broad 

 back just in front of me. I thought it best to take the bull by the 

 horns, so I rode up and hailed him. I will do him justice to say, 

 that although a passionate, he was not a vindictive man ; and, more- 

 over, as luck would have it, he had made a capital little book on the 

 race which was just coming off. He greeted me in his usual cordial 

 manner, and merely remarking that I had served him out very 

 cleverly for the trick he had played me, and that the repairs and 

 expenses had cost him nearly 5/., wound up by assuring me that no 

 power on earth should ever induce him again to drive a jibber 

 down to a fight. 



