40 MELTON AND HOMESPUN 



knows how to saw and pull. He has left it too late, how- 

 ever, and we instinctively hold our breath and shudder 

 as the maddened bolter rushes blindly into the maiming 

 tightly-stretched wire fence, and next moment both man 

 and horse crash into a growth of eucalyptus saplings 

 in a confused heap. 



Five weeks later Blind Hookey looked as fit as the 

 proverbial fiddle, and had it not been for a long narrow 

 scar which seared his chest from shoulder to shoulder, 

 and the painful manner in which his stable attendant, 

 Jacob, limped as he walked him up and down a level 

 strip of veld for the inspection of Mac — the well-known 

 Transvaal trainer of racehorses and galloways — one 

 might have forgotten that Blind Hookey had ever tested 

 the strength of a barbed-wire fence. 



" What do you think of him ? " we asked of the trainer, 

 who appeared to be favourably impressed with the pony. 



" Eh, mon, he's guid enou' looking to win races. I 

 ha'e an idea I've seen him before doon at the Cape, but 

 canna say for sure," rephed the canny Scot, who, although 

 a poor horseman himself, was an excellent judge of a horse 

 and jockeyship, and enjoyed the reputation of being one 

 of the most careful and successful trainers in South Africa. 



" Get up, mon, and canter him round the dam. Bolt 

 or no bolt, he'll find nae wire to run into nearer than three 

 miles," went on Mac, with a grin overspreading his bony, 

 freckled countenance. 



Were we to say that it was with a feeling of unalloyed 

 pleasure or safety that we mounted Blind Hookey on the 

 shore of Wemmerdam we should scarcely tell the truth ; 

 for, although we do not so much mind being " put down " 

 by a bucker or kicker — providing always it is soft falling 



