ord with us. "He may be a gold mine, who
knows?" he said.

Jack laughed so much, that while I was surrounded by a lot of impatient
people he was unable to help me at all, and I can tell those who have
never had to suffer as I did, that to become an owner of a race-horse
suddenly is a very awkward experience.

My brute was called "Thunderer," and the man who had got hold of him
said that his name was the only good thing about him, for he roared
like the sea. I wished heartily that some one would steal my horse,
but every one seemed to be most distressingly anxious to keep as far
away from him as possible.

I suppose Bunny knew all about racers, for in a few minutes he had
arranged for a horse-box to be put on our train, and Thunderer
disappeared. I seemed to spend the remainder of the afternoon in being
asked for money by people who said they had done or were going to do
something for me. I found that my exalted position brought many
burdens with it, and I was very glad when we left the race-course.
Unfortunately, however, we trusted to Bunny's watch, and when we got to
the station, which was on a little branch line, our train to Reading
had gone. There had been some bother about the horse-box, and the
station-master and a number of people who took an unabating interest in
me were quarrelling when we arrived. I sat down on a bench and left
Bunny to talk to them; I have never been so tired of anything in my
life.

Even if the next train was punctual we had to wait for an hour, and by
no chance could we reach Oxford before half-past seven. We should have
been annoyed in any case, but Jack and I were very irritated because
the Mohocks were meeting that evening, and we had men dining with us.
The only thing to do was to telegraph and ask some one to look after
our guests until we came, but the station had no telegraph-office, and
if we wanted to send a telegram we had to go down to the village.

A porter assured us that we could get to the post-office in ten
minutes, and that the road was quite straight. I don't know what he
was thinking about, possibly of a bicycle and daylight, for the way to
the village needed a lot of finding, and it took us quite half-an-hour
to reach the post-office. By that time a thick fog had risen. We
tried, and failed, to get any kind of vehicle to take us back to the
station, so we started to run and lost our way. The natural result was
that we missed another train, and the stati