AN ECCENTRIC CHASE. 251 



CHAPTER III. 



The telegrams sent off, it did not seem to matter much 

 whether I went to town by the 8.48 or by some corre- 

 sponding train from another station, or waited com- 

 fortably till next morning and dined at the Towers. I 

 should have reached there too late to see Leonard that 

 night in all probability, and I was rather angry with 

 him, because of the erratic wanderings to which he had 

 condemned me. They were in no wise his fault, but that 

 did not make me any the less vexed with him ; rather 

 the more, perhaps. My telegrams contained all that I 

 wanted to say, and however he dodged, as appeared to 

 be his wont, he vv^as sure to find one of the four that 

 would be waiting his arrival. I returned, therefore, to 

 the Towers, and for a brief period forgot the worry o^r^ 

 the luckless bet in the comfort of a pleasant dinner. 

 Though they lived in the saddle, most of the inhabitants 

 of this delightful house, and though Lord Horchester had 

 a few animals in training, they were far from being 

 a racing community. Some one after dinner said he 

 supposed the Gloucester Cup was a certainty for King 

 Pippin, and some one else said, " Yes, you couldn't get 

 money on at evens yesterday," and that was all. I did 

 not advocate Muffin Boy's claims to consideration, bit- 

 terly hating his deleterious and indigestible name. With 

 the second glass of Madeira after dinner it flashed 

 across my mind that after all he might win, but the 



