RACING ADVENTURERS. 239 



which there was at one period a great deal of 

 betting. That being so, a heavy commission was 

 executed at the request of Mr. Merry, and so 

 much was the horse's chance esteemed both by 

 owner and commissioner, despite the heavy weight 

 he had to carry, that still more money was put on 

 his chance ; but in spite of the well-known fact 

 that Mr. Merry had backed Chanticleer to win a 

 big sum, his price in the market never "shortened," 

 which being contrary to the usual state of affairs, 

 caused Mr. Swindell a great deal of uneasiness. 

 After thinking the matter over for a few days, he 

 came to the conclusion that the jockey who had 

 been engaged to ride the horse had been tampered 

 with, and having stated the grounds of his sus- 

 picion to Mr, Merry, that gentleman assented to 

 the changing of the jockey at the last minute. Then 

 it became patent, from the frantic efforts of certain 

 bookmakers to back the horse, that the suspicions 

 of the commissioner were well founded, for ridden 

 by C. Marlow, who had been quietly engaged by 

 Swindell, Chanticleer won the race as had been 

 expected by those interested he would do. 



When, at the ripe old age of seventy-four 

 years, Mr. Swindell died, worth, as was care- 

 fully chronicled at the time, ^146,057, there 

 began to percolate through the columns of the 

 sporting journals a series of anecdotes illustrative 

 of his career. But these cannot be drawn upon 

 here ; in fact, many of the circumstances attending 

 his work are embodied in the foregoing slight 

 narrative. 



Although on the whole fortunate in his specu- 

 lations, Mr. Swindell received, as he himself was 

 wont to tell, "many a facer"; and had the mis- 



