212 Indian Racing Reminiscences. 



most professionals. Shortly after throwing up his ap- 

 pointment he met with a far more serious accident than 

 that which he had at Cawnpore. Riding down from 

 Mussooric to Dehra one afternoon, he wished to pass,. 

 on his way home, a small watercourse, at which his pony 

 jibbed. He stretched his right hand, in which he was 

 holding the reins, forward on its neck, and shook the- 

 reins to make it go on. The vicious brute caught his 

 hand between its teeth, pulled him down to the ground,, 

 and then "savaged" him. When poor Bertie at last 

 tore himself free, his hand was a shapeless mass, and. 

 had to be amputated. 



Some time before this terrible occurrence, Mr. Short 

 and I had a rather heated ne.vspaper correspondence 

 about the construction of steeplechase courses. A few^ 

 days after his accident I received from him a letter 

 with the following lines scrawled with his left hand : 

 " Dear Horace— Forgive the words I used against you, 

 for the hand that wrote them is now no more. Yours: 

 ever, Bertie Short." Dear old boy ! 



Three or four daj-s after m\- arrival at Dehra, I 

 happened to go into my stable about one o'clock at 

 night, and found Jovial shivering with cold and without 

 his clothing, which the syce had appropriated for his. 



