ving
in the breeze, his body laid back at an obtuse angle, as he tugged with
both hands at the reins. The cab behind came on apace, its jaunty Jehu
flourishing his whip and shouting loudly to his opponent to keep his
right side. The crowd forgot everything else, and flocked across the
grass with loud cheers for the champions.

"Wire in, hansom," shouted some.

"Stick to it, Dig," cried others.

How the mad career might have ended no one could tell; but at each
corner the cab closed in ominously with its clumsy competitor, whose
horses were fast getting beyond the control of their driver, while the
vehicle they were dragging rocked and yawed behind them like a tug in a
gale. Railsford was meditating a descent on to the scene, with a view
to prevent a catastrophe, if possible, when a shout of laughter greeted
the appearance on the scene of the lawful master of the omnibus, in
headlong pursuit of his property. By an adroit cut across the grass
this outraged gentleman succeeded in overtaking the vehicle and boarding
it by the step behind; and then, amid delighted shouts of "Whip behind,
Dig!" the spectators watched the owner skip up the steps and along the
top, just as "Dig," having received timely warning of his peril, dropped
the reins and skipped the contrary way along the top and down the back
stairs, depositing himself neatly on _terra firma_, where, with
admirable _sang-froid_, he joined the spectators and triumphed in the
final pulling up of the omnibus, and the consequent abandonment of the
race by the indignant hero of the hansom cab, who protested in mock
heroics that he was winning hand over hand, and would have licked the
'bus to fits if Dig hadn't funked it.

In the altercation which ensued the company generally took no part, and
returned, braced up and fortified by their few minutes' sport, to the
serious business of identifying and extricating their luggage from the
general _melee_, and conveying themselves and their belongings into
winter quarters.

The new master was impressed by what he had seen--not altogether
unfavourably. True, it upset in a moment all his dreams of carrying
Grandcourt by the quiet magic of his own influence to the high level he
had arranged for it. Still, the race had been a pretty one while it
lasted, and both competitors had handled the ribbons well. They would
be the sort of boys to take to him--an old 'Varsity Blue; and he would
meet them half-way. Railsford's house s