MY FIRST AND LAST STEEPLE-CHASE 161 



sort was going on. Sticks were waving wildly 

 about, and a dozen voices shouted for me to 

 stop, while hundreds called to go on. The gray 

 was creeping up, however. I had faced as bad 

 before, when there was less occasion ; so pulled the 

 mare up to a trot until within a few yards, when I 

 let her go with a shout she well knew, and in a 

 second we were safe on the other side. The dragoon's 

 horse refusing, the gray, who came up at full speed, 

 chested it heavily, and horse, rider, and wall came 

 rolling over to the ground together, while I cantered 

 in alone. 



I had hardly received the congratulations of the 

 stewards, when Dick came up, looking flushed and 

 excited. As he grasped my hand, he said hur- 

 riedly — 



" Why didn't you stop when I shouted ? " 

 " It was too late. But what is wrong ? " 

 " That scoundrel on the gray bribed a couple of 

 fellows to add six inches to the height of the wall 

 during the storm this morning. They raised it 

 nearly a foot. Some one told the priest, but not 

 until you were in the field. He has caught one of 

 them, the other got away. As for the fellow him- 

 self, his collar-bone is smashed, and the horse all cut 

 to pieces. He couldn't expect better luck. It was 

 a near thine, though. I don't know how the mare 



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