"I don't know the horse that isn't," said Mr. Carstairs,--"so long as
you don't stand at the figure."

They were collected on the farm road, and now, as they were speaking,
there was a commotion among the horses. A man, driving a little
buggy, was forcing his way along the road, and there was a sound of
voices, as though the man in the buggy were angry. And he was very
angry. Frank, who was on foot by his horse's head, could see that the
man was dressed for hunting, with a bright red coat and a flat hat,
and that he was driving the pony with a hunting-whip. The man was
talking as he approached, but what he said did not much matter to
Frank. It did not much matter to Frank till his new friend, Mr.
Carstairs, whispered a word in his ear. "It's Nappie, by gum!" Then
there crept across Frank's mind an idea that there might be trouble
coming.

"There he is," said Nappie, bringing his pony to a dead stop with a
chuck, and jumping out of the buggy. "I say, you, sir; you've stole
my 'orse!" Frank said not a word, but stood his ground with his hand
on the nag's bridle. "You've stole my 'orse; you've stole him off
the rail. And you've been a-riding him all day. Yes, you 'ave. Did
ever anybody see the like of this? Why, the poor beast can't a'most
stand!"

"I got him from Mr. MacFarlane."

"MacFarlane be blowed! You didn't do nothing of the kind. You stole
him off the rail at Stewarton. Yes, you did;--and him booked to
Kilmarnock. Where's a police? Who's to stand the like o' this? I say,
my lord,--just look at this." A crowd had now been formed round poor
Frank, and the master had come up. Mr. Nappie was a Huddersfield man,
who had come to Glasgow in the course of the last winter, and whose
popularity in the hunting-field was not as yet quite so great as it
perhaps might have been.

"There's been a mistake, I suppose," said the master.

"Mistake, my lord! Take a man's 'orse off the rail at Stewarton,
and him booked to Kilmarnock, and ride him to a standstill! It's no
mistake at all. It's 'orse-nobbling; that's what it is. Is there
any police here, sir?" This he said, turning round to a farmer. The
farmer didn't deign any reply. "Perhaps you'll tell me your name,
sir? if you've got a name. No gen'leman ever took a gen'leman's 'orse
off the rail like that."

"Oh, Frank, do come away," said Lizzie, who was standing by.

"We shall be all right in two minutes," said Frank.

"No, we sha'n't," said Mr. Nappie,--"nor yet in