' The Treasure? 127 



strange fatality our gees kept running second to the horses of 

 ' The Treasure,' and to those of a Captain Beresford of the 

 Gunners. The races ended, we paid our money, I had my last 

 drink at the hospitable King's Dragoon Guards' mess, and de- 

 parted to run a ' show ' at the next station, and recoup the lost 

 coin. I was hardly well out of the place, when Captain Beres- 

 ford died of typhoid fever, and on the examination of his 

 papers it turned out that he and ' The Treasure ' were racing 

 confederates. As they had neglected to declare that fact before 

 the late meeting was held ; the races for which Mr Larpent 

 and I had run second, as well as the bets dependent on them, 

 were awarded to us. Unfortunately, control on up-country 

 Indian meetings was, at that time, slack ; ' The Treasure,' 

 instead of ' parting ' went to England, and we neither got 

 back the money we had paid, nor did we receive our win- 

 nings. Such occurrences were not uncommon in that country. 

 Men with the best intentions got up races ; but as they gave 

 their time and trouble for nothing, and as they were not 

 altogether free agents, having generals and colonels over 

 them, they could not enforce payment as promptly as they 

 might have wished. The carrying over of race accounts from 

 one meeting to another was also a fruitful cause of default, 

 which ended, as might have been expected, by the abolition 

 of most of these up-country fixtures which once formed a 

 very pleasant feature in Indian life. After all, the real culprits 

 were the Suez Canal, increased railway communication, and 

 depreciation in the value of the rupee. In the old days, men 

 went to a station, lived, sported, gambled and drank there 

 till most of them died ; for the nearest seaport could be 

 reached only by palankeen or garee dawk y and after that 

 there was a four months' voyage round the Cape to face. 

 Then, the rupee was worth 2s. 2^d. ; now it stands at is. i|d. 

 With the currency at that price, and England within 21 days' 

 journey, it can hardly be wondered at, that most of the 

 young fellows, now, choose marriage and lawn tennis in 

 preference to horses and shooting. 



