174 A Sportsman at Large 



" Look you, Richards," said Thomas. " Whatfor inteed 

 tid you lay against Morgan's puppy whateffer ? " 



r< Well, you see, it was this way, Mr. Thomas. After you 

 had fed the old 'un and left the van, seemin'ly the motion of 

 the train made him kind o' sea-sick, in a way o' speakin'. 

 Anyway, he vomited somethin' crool, and the young 'un, 

 after the manner o' dawgs, ate it up ! " 



" Inteed and to Hell with you ! " shouted the enraged 

 Thomas. " Surely to gootness you should have told us, and 

 why for not, look you ? " 



" Well, I thought as how you'd get the wind up and likely 

 give me a thick ear ! Besides, I'd made up my mind to back 

 Old Tuppenny, and thought you might be moved to give him 

 his tea ! seein' as how his dinner had disagreed with him ! " 



Thus were the rampers ramped ! The names I have used, 

 including those of the greyhounds are, of course, fictitious, 

 but the facts are on record. 



I think that the fastest greyhound (with the exception of 

 the ill-fated puppy Heavy Cavalry) I ever owned, but not 

 the best, was the bk. and w. d. Handley Cross, whom I 

 mentioned as having won me my second South of England 

 Challenge Cup. He filled my nomination in the Gosforth 

 Gold Cup, and was very unlucky not to have lifted it. He 

 survived until the semi-finals, when he fell foul of Young 

 Fuller ton, an own brother (but of a later litter) to the 

 wonderful quadruple Waterloo hero.* This Young Fullerton, 

 like his celebrated brother, was a big brindle, and had great 

 speed. 



It was a stirring race to the hare between him and my 

 representative ; the latter seemed to get the all-important 

 turn on a strong outside. He was on the white collar, and 

 after a closely-contested course, everyone expected the 

 colourless signal to go up, but, much to general surprise, the 

 red flag was hoisted. 



It is quite true to say that the judge is the only one so 

 placed as to be able to give a correct verdict in a give-and- 

 take spin between greyhounds. At any rate, his opinion is 

 the only one worth a tinker's curse when it comes to settling ! 



* Col. North's bd. d. Fullerton. 



