Volume I Part 12 (1/2)

Our game was not to bet on the general race, but to look on as mere spectators and see what could be done in a private match. This was not so easy, since these Belgian fellows were so intent on the ”Lige St.

Lger” and the ”Spa Derby,” and twenty other travesties of the like kind, that they would not listen to anything but what sounded at least like English sport. We had therefore to wait with all due patience for their tiresome races,--”native horses and native jockeys,” as the printed programme very needlessly informed us. ”Flemish mares and fat riders” would have been the suitable description.

I had almost despaired of doing anything, when near five o'clock George came up to say that he had made a match for a hundred Naps, a side,--Bob against Bronchitis, twice round the course,--I to ride my own horse, and Count Amde de Kaerters the other, he giving me twelve pounds and a distance. Not too much odds, I a.s.sure you, since Bronchitis is out of Harpsichord by a Bay Middleton mare.

Before I had reached the stand, George had made a very pretty book, taking five, and even seven to two, against Bob, and an even fifty on her being distanced. Still I was far from comfortable when I saw Bronchitis; a splendid-looking horse, with a great slapping stride, light about the head, and strong in the quarters; just the kind of horse that wants no riding whatever, only to be let do his own work his own way.

”The mare can't gallop with that horse, George!” said I, in a whisper.

”She 'll never see him after the first time round!”

”I'm half afraid of that,” said he, in the same low voice. ”They told me he wasn't all right, but he's in top condition. We must see what's to be done.” He smoked his cigar quite coolly for a minute or two, and then said, ”Ah, here comes the Count! I have it, 'Jim!'”--he always calls me ”Jim,”--”just mind me, and it will all come right.”

I was by no means convinced that everything was so safe, however; and had I been possessed of the fifty Naps. required, I should gladly have paid the forfeit. Fortunately, as it turned out, I had n't so much money; so into the scale I went, my heart being the heaviest spot about me!

”Eleven two,” said George; ”we 'll say eleven.”

The Count weighed eleven stone four, which, with his added weight, brought him to upwards of twelve stone.

”It's exactly as I suspected,” whispered George to me. ”The Belgian has weighed himself as if he was a gold guinea. He has been so anxious not to give you an ounce too much, that he has outwitted himself. All that you 've to do, Jim, is, ride at him every now and then; tease and worry the fellow wherever you can, and try if you can't take some of that loose flesh off him before it's over.”

I saw the scheme at once, Bob. I had nothing whatever to do but to save my distance to win the race; for it was clearly impossible that the Count could go twice round a mile course, and come in as heavy as he started.

I must be brief, for my minutes are few. Would that you could have seen us going round!--I lying always on his quarter, making a rush whenever I got a bit of ugly ground, and, though barely able to keep up with him, just being near enough to worry him. He wasn't much of a rider, it is true, but he knew quite enough to see that he could run away from me whenever he liked; and so he did when he came to the last turn near home. Off he went at speed, pitching the mud behind him, and making my smart jacket something like a dirty draught-board. It was only by dint of incessant spurring and tremendous punishment that I was able to get inside the distance-post just as the cheering in front announced to me that he had pa.s.sed the grand stand.

_My_ canter in--for I was so dead-beat it was only a canter--was greeted with a universal yell of derision. To have a laugh against the Englishman on a race-course was a national triumph of no mean order. ”It was a 'set-off' against Waterloo,” George said.

In I came, splashed, splattered, and scorned, but not crestfallen, Bob, for one glance at my victorious rival satisfied me that all was safe.

The Count was so completely f.a.gged that he could scarcely get down from his horse, and when he did so, he staggered like a drunken man.

”Come now, Count, into the scale!” cried Lord George; ”show your weight, and let us pay our money!”

”I have weighed already,” said the other. ”I weighed before the start.”

”Very true,” rejoined George, ”but let us see that you are the same weight still.”

It required considerable explanation and argument to show the justice of this proposition, nor was it till a jury of English jocks decided in its favor that the Belgians were convinced.

At last he did consent to get into the scale, and to the utter wonderment of all but the few English present, it was discovered that he had lost something like six pounds, and consequently lost the race.

It was capital fun to see the consternation of the Belgians at the announcement. They had been betting with such perfect certainty; they had been giving any odds to tempt a wager; and there they were!--”in,”

as George said, ”for a whole pot of money.”

While they were counting down the cash, too, George kept a.s.suring them that the lesson they had just received was ”cheap as dirt;” ”that it ought by right to have cost them thousands instead of hundreds, but that we preferred doing the thing in an amicable way.” At such times, I must say, George is perfect. He is so cool, so courteous; so apparently serious, too, that even his sharpest cuts seem like civil speeches and kindly counsel. I never admired him more than when, having bought a courier's leather-bag to stuff the gold in, he slung it round his neck, and, taking leave of the party with a polite bow, said,--

”There are times, gentlemen, when one goes all the lighter for a little additional weight!”

I scarcely remember how we reached Lige. It was almost one roar of laughter between us the whole road! And then such plans and schemes for the future!

Luck stood by me to the last. I reached home before the governor, and in time to resume my bandages and my toothache. Mary Anne had taken care to have a very tidy bit of dinner ready; and now, while I sip my Bordeaux, I dedicate to you the last moments of my long and eventful day.