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"And once you've been in trouble, the police know you, and you never get a chance. I got a panic, and I bolted very foolishly." The defence evidently impressed both judge and jury. And had it been simply a question of setting fire to the shed the accused might have got off; but there was the further matter of Four-Pound-the-Second. How did the yearling come to be in the shed?
Monkey Brand, handling him with the wonderful tact of a nurse with a delicate child, gathered the great horse quietly, clicking at him. Four-Pound-the-Second broke into a reluctant canter. Billy Bluff began to romp and bark. The young horse had found the excuse he sought, swung away from his leader, and began to buck round in a circle, propping and plunging.
The two facts were that Albert was going to ride Four-Pound-the-Second at Aintree, and that Mr. Silver stood to get his money back upon the race. There was a third fact, too, that everybody knew. It was different from the other two in that not even Albert pretended that he alone was aware of it. The third fact was that Monkey Brand was sulking.
Happily the strain was relieved, for at the moment Boy, scenting trouble, came out into the yard. Monkey Brand with her. Albert approached her. "Beg pardon, Miss, was it you or me won the National?" he asked. "These 'ere genelmen say it was you." "It was neither," replied the girl. "It was Four-Pound-the-Second. Come in with me, Albert. I want to change his bandages." She reëntered the stable.
Nobody don't know nothin' about it only mother." Four-Pound-the-Second after the first few perilous weeks throve amazingly. He ceased to be a pretty creature, pathetic in his helplessness, and grew into a gawky hobbledehoy, rough and rude and turbulent. Old Mat shook his head over the colt. "Ugliest critter I ever set eyes on," he said, partly in earnest and partly to tease his daughter.
"That's a little bit o' better. Four-Pound-the-Second, I suppose you'll call him." The Berserker Colt On the morning that Make-Way-There had done his gallop Old Mat had noted that a change was coming over Boy. She was ceasing to be a child, and was becoming a woman. He mentioned it to Ma. "Time she did," said the mother quietly. "She'll be seventeen in March."
When Four-Pound-the-Second reached the yard with his three satellites twenty minutes later, the backwash of the crowd still eddied and swirled about the entrance. The policeman on the gate made a fuss about admitting Billy Bluff. But the head yard-man, who knew Mat Woodburn's daughter almost as well as he knew his own, interfered on her behalf. "He'll sleep in my horse's box," Boy explained.
Four-Pound-the-Second moved restlessly. "Give him some water," she directed, "and settle him down as soon as you can." "Very good, Miss," the little jockey answered. It was an hour later that the stable-door clicked and Joses entered. He was wearing rope-soled shoes, and he moved softly behind the long line of horses. In his slouch hat and loose cloak he looked like a stage conspirator.
"Learned to express yourself at least. If I'd that command of language I'd be in the pulpit or in Parliament to-morrow." There was the sound of a horse's feet behind them. Boy was walking Four-Pound-the-Second toward them. "Good morning, Miss Woodburn," called Joses cheerily. "So you're up to-day." "Yes," said the girl. "Going to take him for a spin?" Boy did not answer. "Mr.
The two horses swung round the curve, on the outside of the fences, Four-Pound-the-Second on the inside berth and close to the quarters of his leader. The horses dropped into a dip, but for some reason the echo of their hoofs came reverberating back to the watchers in ever-growing roar. When they emerged from the hollow and raced up the opposite slope they were still together.
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