90 The Life of Fred Archer 
him in at all sorts of weights — 7 stone 4 lb., 6 stone 12 lb., 
6 stone 4 lb., 6 stone, 5 stone 12 lb. What does it all mean ? " 
The Admiral confessed he was in a quandary. Some people 
had told him it was " a rod in pickle," while others had 
endeavoured to impress upon him that it was a rank bad horse, 
and he suggested that he should ask Swindell what sort of a 
horse he was. 
" Now, Admiral, you really don't expect that that old fox 
would tell me anything ? " replied Hodgman, but all the same, 
he carried the message to Swindell, who rose to the occasion. 
" Tell him," said Swindell, " that if he's got 6 stone on 
him he may scratch the damned horse. And further, tell him 
that he can have the brute for a hundred." 
" Better make it two hundred," suggested a friend. " The 
old boy might take you at your word." 
Hodgman returned to the Admiral, who on the strength of 
the message flung the Truth gelding into the Cesarewitch with 
5 stone 12 lb. Swindell kept out of the way of Hodgman for 
weeks, and, hearing nothing, the latter laid against the horse, 
thinking there was something wrong. 
In the meantime Swindell had backed the horse to win 
£100,000, but, when eventually they did meet, he declared he 
had very little on and would only lay Hodgman nineteen 
" ponies," while he laid the Admiral twenty " ponies." 
Both men knew they had been " done," and were corre- 
spondingly wild. 
" I do hope he will be beaten," declared the Admiral ; 
" but Mat Dawson says the race is as good as over." 
This was one of Mr. Swindell's coups that did not come off ; 
but there were others that did. However, Archer was not 
connected with these. 
A writer in the Newcastle Journal for August 22, 1898, says : 
" I have an idea that the largest sum Mathew Dawson 
ever stood to win was on the Truth gelding in the Cesarewitch, 
when he was beaten by a head by Aventuriere. In this 
