The Leather Plater. 323 



The colt furnished a good deal that summer, and by the next 

 winter had grown into a very slashing bloodlike, multum in parvo 

 horse, showing a deal of breeding. He had all the splendid blood- 

 like symmetry of his sire, but his head was the counterpart of old 

 Plover's, very wide under the cheek bones, and heavy in the jowl, 

 which gave him rather a coarse appearance. By the end of 

 December Jack had found out exactly what he could do, and 

 although like the rest, he always stuck to it that hurdle-racing 

 would turn out his forte, he proposed that we should send him for 

 the Hollerton in March, and declared that although it was ten 

 years since he had put on a silk jacket on this first occasion he 

 would ride the colt himself. 



" Oh ! I see they've entered that Holliwell colt for the Hollerton 



Steeple-chase," observed Captain to Mr. Turner, as he entered 



the stable one morning early in March, with the list of entries for 

 that race in his hand. " It was a d d stupid blunder of yours 

 letting that colt slip." 



"Well, I don't know," answered Mr. Turner, who, although he 

 had never ceased inwardly to regret the mistake he had made, did 

 not care to own it. " He'd never have carried your weight, sir j 

 and as for winning the Hollerton, why they might just as well send 

 a man in boots." 



"I wont say that," thoughtfully observed the captain. "I see 

 Jack Russell names him, and, what's more, rides him. This looks 

 like mischief, for that old fox does not often make a mistake. How- 

 ever, how's our mare getting on ?" 



" Oh, first-rate sir ; don't you be a bit afraid, sir 3 she'll beat that 

 colt easy enough, especially as the country is likely to be this year. 

 I don't say our mare will win, but you may lay every shilling you 

 can get on at evens that she beats the Plover colt in their places." 

 And this was given with such a certainty that the captain deter- 

 mined to act on the advice, which he did, and Jack Russell found 

 himself 5o/. richer by the venture. 



A fine morning in the end of March, and white flags were again 

 flying over four miles of the deep, stiffly-enclosed country around 



Y 2 



