84 'OLD q' 



His lordship likewise knew that large sums 

 would depend on the contest outside those im- 

 mediately concerned, as he, like other gamesters, 

 had a following ; so had his antagonists. He 

 therefore correctly surmised that his competitors 

 would be certain to try the pace of the waiter, 

 whom he had quietly watched and his speed care- 

 fully ascertained when running trials. Having 

 these data, he commenced experiments with his 

 journeyman, and felt certain of success — a result 

 which he communicated to his friends, who increased 

 their bets accordingly. 



Nevertheless, the most shrewd and calculating 

 err sometimes. His lordship, in testing his flying 

 wheelman's performance with the wheel, had not based 

 his calculations on the hind-wheel of his carriage. 

 Though overlooked by so wideawake a person as 

 his lordship, this circumstance had played a very 

 great part in deciding his competitors to accept 

 the conditions. They noticed that the wheel the 

 coachmaker usually ran with was much higher 

 than the one upon which the match was to be 

 decided. Visits by those interested to several 

 coachbuilders confirmed their impressions that a 

 man could not get up so great a speed with a small 

 wheel as with a large one. Woe to March, thought 



