90 STABLE SECRETS. 



gling in the rear. His rider, glancing behind him, saw the easy 

 victory within his grasp, and a thought of what Job Sweety's 

 feelings must be at that particular moment of the entry on the 

 record of his mistakes and misdoings flashed through the 

 memory of Puffy Doddles, and caused him to laugh in the 

 ♦sleeve of the wasp-like colours. 



" I wonder what he thinks of the beans now ?< " said he, to 

 his secret agent— himself. " I wonder what he would give not 

 to have tried to get at me ? " 



On rushed the colt by Glitter, clam Comet, by Falling Star, 

 already proclaimed the winner, with vociferous offers to " lay a 

 hundred to one, or the Bank of England to a glass of gin that 

 he won in a walk." 



No evidence exists, either by admission or otherwise, of 

 Puffy Doddles having heard these proffered ventures for small 

 gains at large risks ; but no second opinion can possibly be 

 entertained upon the fact that as Sunshine carried him, " like a 

 bird," within a few lengths of the winning post, he pulled the 

 horse up short to " walk in." 



It might be a shaft winged by Fate ; it might be that the 

 brain of Robert Top's best lad had been turned, from circum- 

 stances of late, the wrong side uppermost ; it might be that in 

 looking over his shoulder on the off side, he did not perceive 

 the stealthy approach of a single opponent on the near side ; 

 but, whatever the cause, " true it is, and pity 'tis 'tis true," this 

 one horse, on the near side, caught him, and before Sunshine 

 could be set going again, notwithstanding the most strenuous 

 efforts on the part of his almost appalled rider, he was defeated 

 on the post by "a short head." 



Such was the fiat of the judge. 



"Within the memory of that imperishable antediluvian, 

 46 the oldest inhabitant," never was there such a " sensation " on 

 the Heath at Newmarket. It could not be believed that 

 Sunshine had been beaten by such a cur as " The Counterfeit," 

 and a thousand questions were asked simultaneously concerning 



