76 STABLE SECRETS. 



" If I don't lay myself open to be written down as thun- 

 dering a fool as ever drew breath," continued the stranger, "or 

 that my eyes oughtn't to be condemned for not being worth 

 twopenn'orth of cat's-meat, I have the honour of speaking to 

 the great Mister Doddles 1 " 



"The great Mister Doddles!" 0, Puffy! O, Robert 

 Top's best lad ! How those words tickled something beneath 

 thy flannel waistcoat ! 



Puffy Doddles pressed two fingers upon his lips, and seemed 

 to be suddenly afflicted with a dry, hacking cough. 



" My name is Doddles," replied he, blushing like a peony ; 

 "Puffy Doddles; but as to — to — to being the great Mister 

 Doddles " 



"And no other," interrupted the stranger. " You're the 

 out-an'-out, tip-top swell of the Doddles. Didn't you win the 

 Leger ? " 



" I rode the winner o' the Leger," was Puffy's modest reply. 



" Ex-actly so," rejoined the stranger, with a look which 

 may be described as a mixture of the " knowing " and " comi- 

 cal." " And he didn't try to run away with ye, did he ? ,: 



Pobert Top's best lad started as if then subjected to the 

 influence of a galvanic battery. His eyes, for the first time, 

 scanned the stranger at a glance, and he saw that a short, thick- 

 set man, whose round head, set upon a pair of broad shoulders, 

 corpulent body, and slender, tightly-dressed legs gave him the 

 appearance of a peg-top, was the promoter of the suggestion 

 that no attempt had been made by Sunshine to run away with 

 him in the great race before referred to. He also perceived 

 that the peg-top figure possessed features which closely assimi- 

 lated those belonging to a ferret, combined to a complexion 

 coming under the denomination of pimply. 



" I say," resumed the peg-top figure, " he didn't try to run 

 away with ye 1 " 



"Who said he did?" rejoined Puffy Doddles, in a gloomy, 

 discontented tone and manner. 



