Part 52 (1/2)

'My mind is made up, Richard--I have decided irrevocably Of course, you needn't come, if you see objections; but I'll bet you ainst your repeating rifle that I do all I've said, and clear out safe'

'Done!' I said 'I've no doubt you'll try; but you ht as well try to pull down the walls of Berrima Gaol with a hay-rake You'll make Sir Ferdinand's fortune, that's all He always said he'd die happy if he could only bag you and the Marstons He'll be ht smiled in his queer, quiet way

'If he doesn't rise to the top of the tree until he takes me--alive, I mean--he'll die a sub-inspector But we'd better sleep on it This is an enterprise of great pith and et your sister to coht,' I said, rather hasty 'We'd better turn the Hollow into Tarban Creek, and advertise for boarders'

Next lass or two of grog; but no, he was hts He certainly onderful clever in all sorts of hen there was any devilht ould have made a man of him But that's the way of the world all over He ain't the only one

As for father, he was like me, and looked on the notion as rank foolishness He swore straight on end for about twenty ht would have his oay as usual; but he'd play at that game once too often He supposed he'd be left in the Hollow all by hial goes withyour nerve, governor Perhaps you'd like to go to the ball too?'

Father gave a sort of growl, and lit his pipe and wouldn't say no ular talked it out, and, after I'd heard all he had to say, it didn't look quite so impossible as it did at first We were to work apart He was to get in with so people that always cager al would shi+ft for himself and look after the horses, and have them ready in case we had to clear at short notice

'And as to enter Rainbow and look after hiet old Jacob Benton; he's the best trainer I've seen since I left home? Billy the Boy told us the other day he was out of a job, and was groo drunk, and so on He'll be all the more likely to keep sober for a ht, and train too But we can't have him here, surely!'

'No; but I can send the horse to hiet him fit there as well as anywhere There's nearly a ularly exercised lately'

Jacob Benton was a wizened, dried-up old Yorkshi+re stable, but drink had been the ruin of him--lost hio right through with a job like ours, for all that Like e between one burst and another And once he took over a horse in training he touched nothing but water till the race was run and the horse back in his box Then he most times went in an awful perisher--took a ht the whole time When he'd spent all his et away into the country more dead than alive, and take the first job that offered But he was fonder of training a good horse than anything else in the world; and if he'd got a regular flyer, and was treated liberal, he'd hardly allow hiot him near the e of pace

When we'd regular chalked it out about entering Rainbow for the Grand Turon Handicap, we sent Warrigal over to Billy the Boy, and got hireed to take the old horse, the week before the races, and give him a last bit of French-polish if we'd keep him in steady work till then From what he was told of the horse he expected he would carry any weight he was handicapped for and pull it off easy He was to enter him in his own name, the proper time before the races If he won he was to have ten per cent on winnings; if he lost, a ten-pound note would do hiht with so till the race was over

So that part of the as chalked out The real risky business was to coht But the ht seemed to be He was like a boy home from school sometimes--mad for any kind of fun with a spice of devilment in it

About a week before the races we all cleared out, leaving father at hoal led Rainbow; he was to take him to Jonathan Barnes's, and meet old Jacob there He was to keep hio to Turon We didn't show there ourselves this ti suspicion on the place

We rode right into Turon, taking care to be well after dark A real pleasure it was to see the old place again The crooked streets, the lighted-up shops, the crowd of jolly diggers walking about s round the public-house bars, the row of the staht and day It all reminded me of the pleasant year Jim and I had spent here I wished we'd never had to leave it We parted just outside the townshi+p for fear of accidents I went to a little place I knehere I put up my horse--could be quiet there, and asked no questions Starlight, as usual, went to the best hotel, where he ordered everybody about and was as big a swell as ever He had been out in the north-west country, and was going to Sydney to close for a couple of stations that had been offered to hiht he went to the barber, had his hair cut and his beard shaved, only leaving his moustache and a bit of whisker like a ribbon He put on a suit of tweed, all one colour, and ordered a lot more clothes, which he paid for, and were to be left at the hotel till he returned frooing to do there he didn't say, and I didn't ask hiood tiain I ht that Kate Mullockson had left Turon She and her husband had sold their place and gone to another diggings just opened I was glad enough of this, for I knew that her eyes were sharp enough to spy uise I had on; and even if she didn't I should always have expected to find her eyes fixed upon me I breathed freer after I heard this bit of news

The gold was better even than ere there A lot of h ere there had made fortunes The field never looked better, and the hard-driving, well-paid, jollyon just the sa it faster--and no one troubling the except howwas through the false botto in with soers, but when I sa quiet everybody took it, and what thousands of strangers there were all over the place, I gaveshares from Melbourne So I shaved off most of my beard, had ht that would shi+ft any sort of likeness there h it was beastly uncomfortable, I stuck to it all the tiood look at all the horses that were in training Two or three good ones, as usual, and a lot of duffers If Rainboasn't beat on his condition, he had pace and weight-carrying for the best of theer stake in better coood enough for an English Derby

Well, I kept dark, you be sure, anda share at a low price now and then just to let 'e My name was Mr Bromford, and I lived at Petersham, near Sydney

The day before the races there was a lot of excite in from everywhere round about, and all the hotels were cra to turn up till next day I saw a four-in-hand drag rattle down the street to the principal inn, and a crowd gather round it as three gentleot out and went into the inn

'You'll see after all our luggage, will you, ostler?' says one of theet hed