14 TALES OF PINK AND SILK. 



gaudily dressed brethren, whose umbrellas and banners show 

 up bravely amid the throng. On the opposite side of the 

 course the carriages are drawn up, bright with smiling faces 

 and pretty dresses, here a coach, there a waggonette or brake ; 

 while several farmers have brought waggons, from which their 

 lady folk dispense hospitality out of ^vell-lilled lunch baskets, 

 and among the crowd lining the rails on both sides of the 

 course the niggers and peripatetic minstrels drive a roaring trade. 



The saddling bell has rung for the fourth race, the Open 

 Steeplechase, and Charlie Daventry is gazing, with a puzzled 

 expression on his handsome face, at a bright bay gelding now 

 being saddled in a remote corner of the paddock. "It can't 

 be Tom Bowling,'' he muses, " or else he has got very much 

 better looking. I have it. It's The Screw, the horse there 

 was all that row about at Blankborough. I thought he would 

 never trail that other crazy brute all this way for a £50 race. 

 I'm nearly certain it's The Screw. Ah, I thought so. There's 

 no mistaking that heart-shaped patch of white on the 

 withers. Captain Bleater, my boy, the coup won't come off 

 this time, if I can help it ! " Up go the numbers with the 

 intelligence that there are only four starters for the three 

 mile race — Mr. George Foswith's ch.m. The Gaiety Girl, 6 

 years; Captain Bleater's b.g. Tom Bowling, 5 3^ears; Sir C. 

 Lenham's br.h. Dublin, aged; and Mr. R Elworth's ch.g. 

 Woldsman, aged. 



They are laying 2 to 1 against the Gaiety Girl, who is 

 made favourite, Dublin being backed at 5 to 1, and Tom 

 Bowling 7 to 1 ; but this price soon shortens to threes, and 

 before they are despatched on their journey Captain Bleater's 

 horse can only be backed at evens, and starts favourite. 



Captain Bleater is in high good humour. The Screw is 

 as fit and well as can be, and the gallant owner stands to win 

 a nice little sum by his careful investments, never dreaming 



