328 



AN OVER-BEACH 



CHAPTEE I 



' The favourite wins ! ' ' He's won now ! ' ' Come on, 

 Hamlet ! ' ' Hamlet's won ! ' 'I knew it was a cer- 

 tainty ; why didn't I have a real dash ? ' Such and 

 similar were the cries which accompanied the finish of a 

 National Hunt fiat race at Sanfield Park ; and there 

 seemed reason in the current opinion. Hamlet, a good- 

 looking four-year-old, lately bought in Ireland, had 

 started a hot favourite, partly because his form in a 

 preceding race justified the laying of 2 to 1, and partly 

 because he was ridden by the well-know^n Jack Tomkins, 

 nominally a gentleman-rider, and well described by the 

 latter half of the compound word, infinitesimal as was 

 his claim to the former. There had been five starters ; 

 three wretches were tailed off; Beanfeast was leading 

 two or three lengths at the distance, but on her back 

 was that enthusiastic young amateur, Harry Montague, 

 whose proceedings in the saddle were invariably erratic 

 in the extreme. 



Montague stuck to riding with indomitable resolution, 

 in spite of the chaff w'ith which his efforts were received 

 by his friends — chaff which was always good-natured, 

 however, for Harry was the best of good fellows, cheery, 

 kind-hearted, and without an atom of conceit. For two 



