all, for I've niver taken her over anything much higher than a pig
sty.'

"'Right-o, sir,' says Tom; 'an' there's any jump in the old girl, I'll
git it out of 'er.'

"The next Saturday afternoon, the biggest meet of the season, up rides
that divil of a Lory on Molly, him in a brand-new suit of ridin' togs
and her heavy-curbed and martingaled like she was a wild four-year-old,
the pair lookin' so fine I scarce knew the man or Raven the mare.

"'Hi, there, Lory!' says Raven; 'wherever did you get the corkin' white
un?'

"'Sh-h-h! you damn fool,' says Lory.

"'The hell you say!' whispers Raven, reins aside, chucklin' low to the
two of us, and with a knee-press which I knew meant, 'Sol, jist you
watch 'em!'

"And we were no more than turned about when up rides the master, Jack,
both ears pointin' Molly, and says:

"'Good-looker you have there, Lory. New purchase?

"'No, indeed,' says Lory; 'old hunter I've had some years; brought her
on from the West; just up off grass and not quite prime yet; guess
she'll finish, though.

"Think of it--the nerve of the divil--and him knowin' she was more
likely to finish at the first fence than ever to reach the check. For
the day's course was a full ten-mile run, and a check was laid half-way
for a blow or a change of mounts.

"Presently the hounds opened at the 'throw-in,' an Irish pack it takes
near a steeplechase pace to stay with, and we were off on as stiff a
course as even Lemon County can show. And a holy miracle was Lory's
ridin' that day. For nigh four miles he held tight behind two duffers
who, while up on top-notchers, pulled their mounts so heavily that they
took a top rail off nearly every fence they rose to and swerved for low
wall-gaps, till he'd got Molly's nerves up a bit. Then, takin' a
chance on the last mile, Lory threw crop and spur into her and raced
straight ahead, liftin' her over wall and timber to try the best, until
close up on Jack. Just then Jack turned and watched them, just as they
were approachin' a heavy four-foot jump, a broad stone wall and ditch.
Sure, I thought it was all up with Lory, but at it he hurled her, and
I'll be curbed if she didn't take it as cleverly as I could.

"Old Molly finished third at the check, but at the expense of a pair of
badly torn and bleedin' knees, got scrapin' over stone and wood, which
that rascal of a Lory hid by swervin' to a white clay bank and
plasterin' her wounds with the clay, and then she was le