108 THE COMPLETE SPORTSMAN 



acidulated drops) that he could rock his horse 

 higher and faster than Rupert could rock their 

 baby sister's cradle. On this occasion his youth- 

 ful prescience may be deemed phenomenal, for 

 if the rocking-horse had not overbalanced and 

 stunned his brother, and if the baby had not 

 indulged in a series of convulsions, as a result 

 of what golfers would call " overswinging," 

 Leopold would most assuredly have won his 

 wager, and thus have created a precedent 

 which he was never destined to repeat. 



In later life, when he was not absenting him- 

 self from the bank for the purpose of attending 

 suburban race-meetings, he spent his time and 

 money backing outsiders to win the Gold Cup 

 or the Cesarewitch, and buying special editions 

 of the evening paper to discover that these 

 animals had failed to justify his confidence. 

 It is not therefore altogether surprising that 

 long before he came of age Leopold's debts to 

 various bookmakers should have assumed such 

 gigantic proportions that his typewTiter was 

 mortgaged up to the hilt, and he had been 

 tempted to appease his clamorous creditors with 

 a number of his father's cheques, upon which 

 he had taken the precaution of inscribing a very 

 passable imitation of the parental signature. 



The misguided youth was eventually per- 

 suaded to leave the Dear Homeland at the 



