'THE WEIGHTED SCALES.' 4 r 3 



kept the secret to himself. Before the jockeys were 

 weighed out for the race, he went to the clerk of the 

 scales, the late Mr. Manning, then engaged at the 

 lower stand weighing jocke}^ for some other race, 

 and said : 



' I have left my light saddle in the top stand ; 

 please let me have the key to get it, as I have to ride 

 in the next race.' 



As there was nothing unusual in the request, the 

 key was handed to him, and the opportunity thus 

 afforded him of fixing, unobserved, the lead to the 

 bottom of the scales without exciting suspicion, as 

 he soon returned and gave the key back to its proper 

 custodian. Clearly to understand the circumstances, 

 I should state that though the jockej^s were allowed 

 to ' weigh out ' before the race at either of the scales, 

 they could only ' weigh in ' after the race at the top 

 stand. The jockey knew that if he carried more 

 than 2 lb. overweight without declaring it, he would, 

 if he won, be disqualified, and that by the plan he 

 adopted he was quite certain to be the right weight. 

 But I suppose it never occurred to his imaginative 

 mind that others carrying the right weight being 

 weighed at the lower stand, would prove that he 

 carried the wrong weight when weighing in at the 

 top stand. If he had thought of this, and had had 

 the opportunity of making both scales alike, he 

 would have escaped detection ; for in that case all 

 the horses would have simply carried 2 lb. over the 



