10 TALES OF PINK AXD SILK. 



at Barnoldby practically at her mercy; Tom Bowling "runs 

 out " at Kempdown ; and The Toreador falls at Elsham Park. 

 But the finishing touch is put to their misfortune when the 

 rider (and owner) of The Screw is called before the Stewards 

 at Blankborough and severely reprimanded for suspicious 

 riding, just when that animal — the best they have in the 

 stable — is undergoing a careful preparation, both at home and 

 in public, for the Fonaby Handicap. 



" Something must be done, and that soon ! " thinks 

 Captain Bleater, as he watches his string at work ; and then 

 as he catches sis^ht of the last two in the line, an idea 

 enters his head. " How very much alike are Tom Bowling 

 and The Screw!" They are both bright bay geldings. Each 

 has white on the near fetlock, and each has a splash of white 

 on the face. True, The Screw has a little more white on the 

 fore leg, and the blaze on the face is bigger; he is also a 

 better made animal, and gallops like a racehorse, but no 

 one who was not intimately acquainted with them could 

 very w^ell tell him and Tom Bowling apart. "Ah ! Ferry- 

 hurst, the Kempdown Spring or Truebridge," mutters Captain 

 Bleater softly to himself " No, too near home, I am afraid, 

 all of them. I must think it over." 



And so he goes home to study the Sheet Calendar, which 

 results in a visit to the boxes and the discovery that The 

 Screw is half an inch higher than Tom Bowling and has 

 a small patch of white under the saddle. Well, no one 

 would remember that. Both horses five years old, and so 

 much alike. This is something like luck ! " We'll send 

 Tom Bowling to Market Caistor for the Open Steeplechase," 

 says Captain Bleater. " It's for horses that have never 

 started in a handicap steeplechase or won a steeplechase 

 of the value of £100," he adds ; " otherwise we might have 

 let The Screw have a go." Tuplin acknoAvledges these 

 instructions with a wink of much intelligence, as he replaces 



