UPSET. 121 



business, being all brought to bear upon the 

 scheme. If he could have let Crossley and 

 Banks into a hole, he would gladly have done 

 so, but the blot on the transaction, from his 

 point of view, was that he must run straight 

 so far as they were concerned. He had some 

 horses of the highest class, and had been in 

 some very big " plants " in his time, some of 

 which had succeeded and others failed, but he 

 had rarely entered into a swindle with such 

 gusto as on the present occasion. 



As for his brother rogues, Crossley and Banks, 

 it was some comfort to Sir Thomas to know that 

 they were both desperately hard-up, and that 

 the few hundreds they might win now would 

 only make them more eager to continue the 

 game, which was tolerably certain to break them 

 in the end. As already mentioned in the course 

 of conversation, Banks's new horse, Eed Eover, 

 was in reahty the Daphne colt, an animal that 

 had done fairly well on the flat, took kindly to 

 jumping, and was, of course, of infinitely superior 

 class to anything that was likely to appear in a 

 regimental steeplechase. With such an accom- 

 plished rider as Crossley the result seemed 

 assured, and the various players at the game 

 looked forward with an anxious expectation to 

 the 28th. 



