98 A SHARP BURST AND A HARD RUN. 



therefore with good show of reason to nick in cleverly 

 at the end of a mile or two. 



In spite of Jardinier's half insulting manner and 

 expression, the Virginian was neither himself hurried, 

 nor hurried his good horse, but keeping a steady hand 

 on his snaffle sat firm and galloped, not like a provin- 

 cial, but like one who knew Melton. The field acrosrs 

 w^hich they were going was rather wet, without being 

 very deep or heavy, and became more splashy, with a 

 few tufts of rushes interspersed as it neared the head- 

 land, where it would seem there was a drain on tliia 

 side the fence, which was a tall, newly plashed, stake 

 and bound rasper, full four feet in height at top of a 

 moderate bank, the whole coupled by a recent binding, 

 that no horse which touched it could hope to break 

 and so escape a fall. 



All this Fairfax twigged with half an eye, and ap- 

 prehending that it might be boggy, drew a little fur- 

 ther to the left, where a sound, recently mended cart- 

 track, led direct to a stout gate, a few inches lower 

 than the fence, doing the whole so gradually and so 

 quietly that his horse never lost his stride, nor fell at 

 all to the rear. 



"Aha!" said Dick Musgrave, who rode close behind 

 him, as he saw the manoeuvre, "Yankee or no Yan- 

 kee, that chap knows what he is about." 



The next moment they were at the fence, with his 

 hands down, his heels dropped, no touch of the spur or 

 flourish of the whip, the Virginian popped his horse 

 over the difficult gate, as if he had been doing it all 

 his life, neither slackening his pace nor increasing it 

 the least. Jardinier, who had gone a little too fast at 

 the plashed hedge, felt the ground shiver under him, 

 when he was within three strides of taking off — a less 

 daring and sagacious rider would have tried to get 

 him in hand too late, checked his horse, made him 

 flounder, and as likely as not brought him, chest on, 



