66 RACECOURSE AND COVERT SIDE. 



narrower than they were — it was early in the 

 season, and the undergrowth was awfully de- 

 ceptive — rode at one, a regular sepulchre, and 

 got well in, wrong side up. You know the sort 

 of benediction Poult would have uttered if one 

 of us had come to grief while he was pounding 

 down the lane, but the stranger was different. 

 What do you think he did ? Actually pulled up 

 and told us to come to the rescue. ' Stop, sir, 

 stop ! ' he yelled out to Hyde and me : ' stop 

 and help the gentleman out. He hasn't paid 

 his subscription yet.' " 



" He ought to have delayed payment till he 

 was sure of the ditches," I suggested; "but 

 Hyde is so keen — " and I was about to express 

 wonder at finding him among the followers of 

 that indifferent "votary of Diana," Mr. Toppler, 

 when Sutcliffe broke in with — 



" Yes ; it is not so much the fox as the grey 

 pony that Hyde goes to hunt;" and then I 

 remembered that Miss Poult, a very pretty girl, 

 had been riding a grey pony in the morning 

 when I saw the hunt, and out of regard for my 

 fiiend's prospective father-in-law no more was 

 said about Poult when the cigars had been found. 



It was not with any very sanguine anticipa- 

 tions of sport that I reached the meet at eleven 

 o'clock next morning. About a dozen men were 



