Rujub, the Juggler. Henty George Alfred

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СКАЧАТЬ is a thing you don’t seem to have the most remote idea of. Here we are just getting up a sweepstake for the next race; hand over a rupee and try to get up an interest in it. Do try and forget your work till the race is over. I have brought you here to do you good. I regard you as my patient, and I give you my medical orders that you are to enjoy yourself.”

      Bathurst laughed.

      “I am enjoying myself in my way, Doctor.”

      “Who is that very pretty woman standing up in the next carriage but one?” Isobel asked.

      “She comes from an out station,” the Doctor repeated; “she is the wife of the Collector there, but I think she likes Cawnpore better than Boorgum; her name is Rose.”

      “Is that her husband talking to her?”

      “No; that is a man in the Artillery here, I think.”

      “Yes,” the Major said, “that is Harrowby, a good looking fellow, and quite a ladies’ man.”

      “Do you mean a man ladies like, uncle, or who likes the society of ladies?”

      “Both in his case, I should fancy,” the Major said; “I believe he is considered one of the best looking men in the service.”

      “I don’t see why he should be liked for that,” Isobel said. “As far as I have seen, good looking men are not so pleasant as others. I suppose it is because they are conscious of their own good looks, and therefore do not take the trouble of being amusing. We had one very good looking man on board ship, and he was the dullest man to talk to on board. No, Doctor, I won’t have any names mentioned, but I am right, am I not?”

      “He was a dull specimen, certainly,” the Doctor said, “but I think you are a little too sweeping.”

      “I don’t mean all good looking men, of course, but men who what I call go in for being good looking. I don’t know whether you know what I mean. What are you smiling at, Mr. Wilson?”

      “I was thinking of two or three men I know to whom your description applies, Miss Hannay; but I must be going—they are just going to start the next race, and mine is the one after, so I must go and get ready. You wish me success, don’t you?”

      “I wish you all the success you deserve. I can’t say more than that, can I?”

      “I am afraid that is saying very little,” he laughed. “I don’t expect to win, but I do hope I shall beat Richards, because he is so cock sure he will beat me.”

      This wish was not gratified. The first and second horses made a close race of it; behind them by ten or twelve lengths came the other horses in a clump, Wilson and Richards singling themselves out in the last hundred yards and making a desperate race for the third place, for which they made a dead heat, amid great laughter from their comrades.

      “That is excellent,” Major Hannay said; “you won’t see anything more amusing than that today, girls. The third horse simply saved his stake, so that as they will of course divide, they will have paid twenty-five rupees each for the pleasure of riding, and the point which of their tats is the fastest remains unsettled.”

      “Well, they beat a good many of them, Major Hannay,” Miss Hunter said; “so they did not do so badly after all.”

      “Oh, no, they did not do so badly; but it will be a long time before they get over the chaff about their desperate struggle for the third place.”

      The next two races attracted but slight attention from the occupants of the carriage. Most of their acquaintances in the station came up one after the other for a chat. There were many fresh introductions, and there was so much conversation and laughter that the girls had little time to attend to what was going on around them. Wilson and Richards both sauntered up after changing, and were the subject of much chaff as to their brilliant riding at the finish. Both were firm in the belief that the judge’s finding was wrong, and each maintained stoutly he had beaten the other by a good head.

      The race for Arabs turned out a very exciting one; the Rajah of Bithoor’s horse was the favorite, on the strength of its performances elsewhere; but Prothero’s horse was also well supported, especially in the regiment, for the Adjutant was a first class rider, and was in great request at all the principal meetings in Oude and the Northwest Provinces, while it was known that the Rajah’s horse would be ridden by a native. The latter was dressed in strict racing costume, and had at the last races at Cawnpore won two or three cups for the Rajah.

      But the general opinion among the officers of the station was that Prothero’s coolness and nerve would tell. His Arab was certainly a fast one, and had won the previous year, both at Cawnpore and Lucknow; but the Rajah’s new purchase had gained so high a reputation in the Western Presidency as fully to justify the odds of two to one laid on it, while four to one were offered against Prothero, and from eight to twenty to one against any other competitor.

      Prothero had stopped to have a chat at the Hunters’ carriage as he walked towards the dressing tent.

      “Our hopes are all centered in you, Mr. Prothero,” Mr. Hunter said. “Miss Hannay has been wagering gloves in a frightfully reckless way.”

      “I should advise you to hedge if you can, Miss Hannay,” he said. “I think there is no doubt that Mameluke is a good deal faster than Seila. I fancy he is pounds better. I only beat Vincent’s horse by a head last year, and Mameluke gave him seven pounds, and beat him by three lengths at Poona. So I should strongly advise you to hedge your bets if you can.”

      “What does he mean by hedge, uncle?”

      “To hedge is to bet the other way, so that one bet cancels the other.”

      “Oh, I shan’t do that,” she said; “I have enough money to pay my bets if I lose.”

      “Do you mean to say you mean to pay your bets if you lose, Miss Hannay?” the Doctor asked incredulously.

      “Of course I do,” she said indignantly. “You don’t suppose I intend to take the gloves if I win, and not to pay if I lose?”

      “It is not altogether an uncommon practice among ladies,” the Doctor said, “when they bet against gentlemen. I believe that when they wager against each other, which they do not often do, they are strictly honest, but that otherwise their memories are apt to fail them altogether.”

      “That is a libel, Mrs. Hunter, is it not?”

      “Not altogether, I think. Of course many ladies do pay their bets when they lose, but others certainly do not.”

      “Then I call it very mean,” Isobel said earnestly. “Why, it is as bad as asking anyone to make you a present of so many pairs of gloves in case a certain horse wins.”

      “It comes a good deal to the same thing,” Mrs. Hunter admitted, “but to a certain extent it is a recognized custom; it is a sort of tribute that is exacted at race time, just as in France every lady expects a present from every gentleman of her acquaintance on New Year’s Day.”

      “I wouldn’t bet if I didn’t mean to pay honestly,” Isobel said. “And if Mr. Prothero doesn’t win, my debts will all be honorably discharged.”

      There was a hush of expectation in the crowd when the ten horses whose numbers were up went down to the starting point, a quarter of a mile from the stand. They were to pass it, make the circuit, and finish there, the race being two СКАЧАТЬ