we have to look to here is whether there be a claim at all, and
then what it's worth. The whole affair may be just a cross between this
fellow Dunn and one of his own pals. Now, it's my Lord's business to see
to that. _You_ are only the _second_ horse all this while. If my Lord
knows that he can be disqualified, he's wide awake enough to square the
match, he is. But it maybe that Dunn hasn't put the thing fairly before
him. Well, then, you must compare your book with my Lord's. You'll have
to go over to him, Beecher." And the last words were uttered with a
solemnity that showed they were the result of a deep deliberation.

"It's all very well, Master Davis, to talk of going over to Italy; but
where's the tin to come from?"

"It must be had somehow," said Davis, sententiously. "Ain't there any
fellows about would give you a name to a bit of stiff, at thirty-one
days' date?"

"Pumped them all dry long ago!" said Beecher, laughing. "There's not
a man in the garrison would join me to spoil a stamp; and, as to the
civilians, I scarcely know one who isn't a creditor already."

"You are always talking to me of a fellow called Kellett,--why not have
a shy at _him?_"

"Poor Paul!" cried Beecher, with a hearty laugh. "Why, Paul Kellett's
ruined--cleaned out--sold in the Encumbered what d'ye-call-'ems, and has
n't a cross in the world!"

"I ought to have guessed as much," growled out Grog, "or he'd not have
been on such friendly terms with _you_."

"A polite speech that, Grog," said Beecher, smiling.

"It's true, and that's better," said Davis. "The only fellows that stick
close to a man in his poverty are those a little poorer than himself."

"Not but, if he had it," said Beecher, following up his own
thoughts,--"not but, if he had it, he's just the fellow to do a right
good-natured thing."

"Well, I suppose he's got his name,--they have n't sold _that_, have
they?"

"No, but it's very much like the estate," said Beecher. "It's far too
heavily charged ever to pay off the encumbrances."

"Who minds that, nowadays? A bad bill is a very useful thing sometimes.
It's like a gun warranted to burst, and you can always manage to have it
in the right man's hands when it comes the time for the explosion."

"You _are_ a rum un, Davis,--you _are_, indeed," said Beecher,
admiringly; for it was in the delivery of such wise maxims that Davis
appeared to him truly great.

"Get him down for fifty,--that ain't much,--fifty at thr