ert Edward, riding an any-price outsider,
came up on his right out of the blue and challenged the star-spangled
jacket.

Chukkers, who was on the favourite, with orders to win, had drawn his
whip and ridden for his life.

"'E could draw whip and draw blood, too," chuckled Monkey Brand. "But it
weren't no manner o' good. Took up his whip and stopped his 'orse.
Albert, 'e never stir. Sat there and goes cluck-cluck and got home on
the post. Rode a pretty race, he did. Miss Boy was ever so please."

"And what about Chukkers?" asked Jim.

Monkey Brand sniggered.

"He was foamin'-mad, bloody-yellin' all over the place. I was glad Mrs.
Woodburn wasn't there to hear. Jaggers had him out on the mat afore 'em
all. Said he'd been caught nappin'--by a boy with a face like a girl,
too. Putnam 'orse and all. That got ole Chukkers' tail up. He made
trouble in the weighin'-room. Said Albert had done him a dirty dish; but
you can't go to the Stewards on that. And Albert he told Miss Boy--'I
never done nothin' to him, only beat him.' And he told the truth that
time if he never told it afore. 'Never you mind,' says Miss Boy. 'You
won and you'll win again--if your head don't get so swelled you can't
get the weight. We all know Chukkers,' says she, 'and Jaggers, too.'"

* * * * *

The last day was never taken very seriously by the regular followers of
the Duke's hounds. All those to whom hunting was the one worthy
occupation in life kept religiously aloof.

"It's the people's day," they said. "They don't want us."

To-day was no exception to the rule.

Before lunch hounds chopped a mangy fox outside Prior's Wood; and it was
not till the afternoon was getting on that they found a rover lying out
in a field of mangolds.

He must have been a hill-fox, who had been caught raiding in the
lowlands, for he made a straight point for the Downs.

There was the usual scurry. Boy Woodburn was, as always, the last away,
with Silver in close attendance.

They threaded the ragged fringes of pedestrians, who still clung to the
skirts of the horsemen, turned to the right through an open gate, and
leisurely pursued the cavalcade disappearing furiously before them in
the distance.

The girl nursed her baby, who showed himself as unconcerned by the fuss
and flurry of the vanguard as his young mistress; while Banjo fretted
and fumed to get away.

They crossed a big grass field at a canter. Lollypop was young and