82 RACECOUESE AND COVERT SIDE. 



things" on the tiirf are his delight; but touts 

 deceive, very often because they cannot help it, 

 and good things, as some of us have paid to 

 learn, do not invariably come off. 



Fearstone rides about half as well as he 

 thinks he does, and is, therefore, an undeniably 

 fine horseman, an accomplishment which he is 

 the better able to display to advantage because 

 his cattle for the most part are very poor, and 

 to make them do their work requires very special 

 skill. Their owner endeavours to buy his horses 

 from professional dealers for less than their real 

 value ; and this is an attempt in which cleverer 

 men than Fearstone constantly fail. By this 

 time he is slowly but surely learning that an 

 animal honestly worth JC200 is not always to be 

 picked up for much under half that sum, though 

 it is only fair to Fearstone's astuteness to con- 

 fess that if he does not succeed in buying his 

 mounts for less than their legitimate price, he 

 is frequently able to sell them remuneratively 

 to budding acquaintances. 



I had never sought the honour of intimacy 

 with Fearstone, partly because I did not hke 

 him, and partly because I could not afford it — 

 the mental strain of keeping clear of his shrewd- 

 ness and the expense of succumbing to it were 

 equally distasteful to me ; but I visited a good 



