TATTERS ALL'S. 45 



" Stand it out ! " repeated Bill Smoothy with a sneer. 

 " Catch-me-who-can holds him as safe as if he was boiled." 



"Ya-as — haugh," rejoined the aristocratic member of the 

 Ring. " Precisely my idea — haugh." 



" You're full, I suppose, against Sunshine % " interrogatively 

 remarked Bill Smoothy, peering out of the corners of his eyes 

 with the expression of a lively ferret upon an approaching but 

 unseen rat. 



" Eh ! " quickly rejoined the aristocratic member of the Ring, 

 turning back the leaves of his pocket-book with a rapid move- 

 ment of his fingers. " Eh ! — haugh — no ; I can go on." 



"I've a com, just to suit a book, to back Sunshine for a 

 few ponies," added Bill Smoothy, in a tone and manner which 

 might have led a careless observer to draw the inference of its 

 being a subject of the least importance to the commissioner of 

 the Great Stable of the North whether the ponies were "booked," 

 or turned into cats'-meat on the spot. 



" I've — haugh — five thousand to lay — haugh ! " observed the 

 aristocratic member of the Ring, after strictly scrutinising the 

 pages of his pocket-book. 



"I can take it all at the present price," rejoined Bill 

 Smoothy. 



" You are on," smilingly returned the aristocratic member 

 of the Ring. " You are on," repeated he, with an inward and 

 imperfectly concealed chuckle. 



The bet was booked. Five thousand to one hundred 

 against Sunshine, by Glitter, dam Comet, by Falling Star. Five 

 thousand to one hundred that he did not win the Derby — his 

 next engagement, now on the eve of " coming off." 



As Bill Smoothy once remarked — if not more frequently — 

 upon examining the works of a watch which he earned at the 

 terminus of a remarkably thick cable chain of the finest gold, 

 " There are wheels within wheels;" and in the course of this 

 sunny spring afternoon at " Tattersall's " it was remarked by 

 the representatives of the press that, "notwithstanding the 



