A Dangerous Brute. A sporting sketch

Front matter

A SPORTING SKETCH BY Mrs. ROBERT JOCELYN AUTHOR OF "RUN TO GROUND," "THE M.F.H.'s qjK_HTES," "DRAWN BLANK," "ONLY A HORSE DEALER," ETC. feonfcon HUTCHINSON & CO. 34 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS. contents. CHAPTER PAGE I. With Mr. M'Grady, i II With Mr. Green, 15 III. For Sale Again, 25 IV. With Mr. Sharp, 32 V. With Mr. Timid, 55 VI. With Mr. Gohard, 69 VII. With Lady Sportsman, 95 VIII. With Squire Goodfellow, - - - 106 IX. With Mr. Boaster, 124 X. With Mr. Snooks, 138 XI. At Foxglove Hall, 145 XII. With Mr. Hyde Park, .... 160 XIII. At the Brampton Show, .... 183 XIV. With Mr. Stickem, 197 XV. With the Rev. Thomas Worthy, - - 215 XVI. With Captain Browne, . - - - •©efcteafeb WITH THE AUTHORESS'S LOVE TO HER UNCLE, Mr. GEORGE STAFFORD THOMPSON, WITH THE HOPE THAT IT MAY MEET WITH HIS APPROVAL, AND THE CONVICTION THAT IF IT DOES SO, IT WILL BE SUCCESSFUL AS A SPORTING SKETCH.

Chapter I. With Mr

M'GRADY. " I say, Browne ! " The speaker was a fair-haired, good looking young man of five and twenty. He was standing in a large stalled stable in the sale yard of Deakinson, the Creelby auctioneer ; and the man to whom he ad dressed his remark was no less important a personage than Captain Browne, the well-known steeplechase rider. This gentleman moved briskly forward. He had been standing opposite stall No. 22, with his eyes fixed in an indiffer ent, rather bored manner, upon the halfbred, weight-carrying horse which occupied it. He joined his friend, who was gazing, with eager admiration in his blue eyes, at a remarkably good-looking thoroughbred in stall No. 24. " Now, that is a good-looking one, Browne. Let us see what they say about him," continued the younger man, in a tone as eager as his glance.

"Yes. He is a good-looking horse," agreed Captain Browne, quietly. "No. 24? He is one of M'Grady's lot, then." " Yes," replied his companion, consulting his catalogue. " Hawthorne, by Gallopard, 15-3, five years, good hunter, fine fencer, and fast. He looks just my sort, doesn't he ? " Captain Browne's firm lips relaxed into a slight smile. " He looks like picking up a steeplechase or two," he replied. " What he does not look like is a dealer's horse. I should like to know how M'Grady came by him." At this moment one of M'Grady's men hurried forward and began to strip the brown horse under discussion. His face was as impenetrable as the face of a dealer's man ought to be ; but had he chosen he could have told Captain Browne and his friend Mr. Green a rather long story about Hawthorne, by Gallopard, and the way in which he had come into M'Grady's possession.

"Promising horse that, sir," said a suave voice, in Mr. Green's ear. " I have had many a good one, but it ain't often one sees a horse like that there. He'd carry a gentleman like you first rate, and it would be a pleasure to sell him to any one as knew how to send him along. I should just like you to see the way he strides away under you, sir. It's a real treat, now ; it is so." The man at the horse's head had stripped him by now ; and whether to ride him was a treat or not, to look at him was one be yond doubt. Mr. Green began to see himself upon his back. He wanted to buy a horse, and had already taken a fancy for two or three, which Browne had called brutes, or had discovered were hopelessly wrong ; and although he ought to have been grateful, he had more money than brains, and he was not.

He had begun to wish that he had left Browne at home. It was all very well asking Browne's advice, but he de termined to be more firm this time. He knew quite as much himself about horses as Browne did. " I should like to see him out," he said, with decision. "Certainly, sir," agreed M'Grady, in a cheerful tone, but with a sinking heart. " Here, Joe, put a snaffle and a saddle on this horse. I will go with you to the paddock myself, sir." " Oh, I have no time to go to the paddock," returned young Green. " I will just see how he moves in the yard." M'Grady's face was an apologetic study: it seemed so anxious and wishful to be pleasant and obliging. " I do wish you could have seen him in the paddock, sir," he said, regretfully. " And the fact is, he's been ridden up and down this yard by a good many gentlemen this morning, as no doubt fancies they can ride ; and good-tempered as he is, they've tried him a bit.

He'll not be at his best here now." Meanwhile, Captain Browne had been steadily examining the horse with all the astuteness of a veterinary surgeon and rather more knowledge than some of them would have displayed. M'Grady watched him with a well-con tented smile. Captain Browne was a gentleman he would not have especially cared to have seen examining some of his horses, but it was a real pleasure to see him overhauling Hawthorne. The horse was absolutely sound in wind and limb, and without a single blemish. He was also as well made as any horse could be. And as Captain Browne straightened himself after his examination was over, and stood back while the horse was being led out of the stable, he acknowledged to him self that this was so. And he was puzzled. How was it that such a remarkably good-looking thorough bred, who was up to carrying some weight and was so absolutely sound, had got into M'Grady's hands?

There must be something wrong. It was a well-known fact that M'Grady never had anything but screws. The yard was beginning to fill for the commencement of the sale, and therefore that M'Grady should press them to go into the paddock, which vvas actually next door to it, was not surprising ; but that he did press the matter was certain, and in spite of the fact that the man had ventured to speak of the horse's temper being a little upset, which it would have been sup posed he would not have done if the horse's temper was much at fault, Captain Browne suspected that temper was the horse's fault. That, and probably his mouth. Captain Browne was not given to being enthusiastic. He had had a great deal of experience, and he had learnt that, especially so far as horseflesh goes, things are apt to turn out in a disappointing kind of way.

Nevertheless, he had taken a fancy for this Hawthorne of M'Grady's, and as he followed him towards the paddock the feeling; of interest Qrew. The horse was every inch a gentleman. He looked like a flyer and as if he could gallop ; and he walked along with an easy swinging stride, and his legs tucked well under him. "Now, sir," said Mr. M'Grady mag nanimously, when they reached the paddock, "give him a real good trial; gallop him, jump him, do what you like with him!" ("Deal more likely he'll do what he likes with you," he mentally observed.) "I'll be bound you were never on such a lepper in your life" ("especially when there's nothing to lep, the brute ! " he added grimly to himself). But Mr. Green had not the smallest intention of putting himself in a false position by taking his first ride on a horse of which he knew absolutely nothing, with his present audience to criticise his per formance.

He was a very smart young fellow indeed, he affected a horsey get up, and he rode remarkably well, — in a chair. To do him justice, he was not troubled by fear; but he had no hands and no seat, and he hoped that no one knew it excepting" himself. " If you will get on him, Browne, I shall be much obliged," he said, promptly. " Then I can see how he moves." Captain Browne assented at once. He had expected this proposition. Now, knowing that the brown was awkward to ride, one might have supposed that M'Grady would have been thankful that a man who was proficient in the art should get on the horse, instead of a young fellow whom he had summed up at a glance as no horseman. But M'Grady was a very shrewd man, and he instantly inter fered with this arrangement. " Excuse me, sir, but I do wish the gentleman would just try him himself," he said appealingly to Captain Browne.

"He can feel how he moves a deal better than he can see how he does it." There was no denying this fact ; and after a little more persuasion Mr. Green climbed into the saddle and gathered up his reins with a jerk. Hawthorne laid back his ears, but stood like a stone while he altered the stirrups, until they were three holes too long ; and then he moved quietly off. By the merest chance the horse and he agreed as to the way that they would go. M'Grady gave an involuntary sigh of relief. There were brief intervals when the brown behaved like a lamb ; but that he should thus acquit himself under the present trying circumstances, when it was all-important to his owner that he should do so, was altogether contrary to M'Grady's experience of things in general, and of things concerning horseflesh in particular.

He had felt a little hopeful that young Green was a fool, and that if he could persuade him to get upon the horse's back, he would buy him sooner than own that he could not ride him. And being no fool himself he saw that in spite of that very quiet manner and disapproving air of Captain Browne's, he liked the horse, and that the fact that Mr. Green could not manage him would not prove to him that the horse was unmanageable. He also knew that the horse had but two faults, — his mouth and his temper ; and that apart from them he was worth a very long price. In the paddock there he, had not feared his mouth, but with good cause he had dreaded his temper. But that the horse should quietly canter round and round the field, pass the gate, as if he did not see it, and pop over the hurdles as if he liked doing it, with an execrable horseman on his back, seemed to Mr. M'Grady to be the most incompre hensible of all his numerous freaks.

It was indeed a piece of unforeseen good luck, that the most difficult horse he had had to part with for many a long day past, should take it into his head to play into his hands, and settle his own fate in such a highly satis factory manner as this. As to Captain Browne, he had been convinced that there was something wrong, and he could not make it out at all. Mr. Green was in an excellently good humour, being highly delighted at having acquitted himself so well. He told himself that he had found a horse that would suit him down to the ground. He had a perfect mouth, and seemed to understand his rider's wishes without their having to be explained. Hawthorne's fate was sealed; and M'Grady knew it. He hurried eagerly forward. " You were never on a better horse than that, I'll warrant, sir !

" he exclaimed, enthusiastic ally. " Or a pleasanter to ride. He's a perfect mouth now, hasn't he ? If you prefer it, you will find he'll face a curb." Captain Browne's lynx eyes were fastened on him instantly; and M'Grady knew that he had made a mistake. " Green," said Captain Browne, as they walked away together ten minutes later on, " I would not give much for that horse. He pulls like a demon, or I am very much mistaken." " My dear fellow, I never got on a horse with a better mouth in my life ! What makes you think that ? " was the astonished reply. "Well, M'Grady said he would 'face a curb,' and I shall be much surprised if that does not mean that he will face any bit that ever was invented, and run away in it. Meanwhile M'Grady walked back into the yard. " I told you that I wished to put a reserve of ,£200 on No. 24, didn't I?" he remarked casually to the auctioneer.

If young Green did not mean to go so high as this reserve, he could let him have the horse at his own price after the sale, he reflected. Captain Browne would probably try to prevent young Green from buying the horse ; but M'Grady was too keen an ob server of characters to have much fear of his succeeding in doing so. Young Green thought he knew what sort of a horse would suit him quite as well as Captain Browne or any one else did. He had a very excellent opinion of his own judgment, had Mr. Tom Green, unless he (M'Grady) was very much mistaken. And when No. 24 came up to the hammer M'Grady much regretted that he had not put a still higher reserve on that amiable animal, for he soon discovered that Mr. Green's man had been told to buy the horse at any price. This was indeed the case ; and so although Hawthorne, having quite re gained his usual spirits, cleared the ring in an emphatic manner during the whole time he occupied it, he was knocked down for the sum of 210 guineas, — the highest price reached that day.

Chapter II. With Mr

GREEN. " Good-morning, Greyson!" said Mr. Tom Green affably, a few days later on. " Why, what is the matter with your arm ? " he added, as his eyes fell upon a bandage and a sling. The man glanced at them apologetically. The story of what had happened was well known in the stables, the arm was really badly sprained, and there was nothing for it but to tell the truth. "Well, sir," he said, in a tone as apologetic as his glance had been, " it's that there new 'oss as came on Thursday. He's an orkard customer, and no mistake." " Kicked you off, did he? " returned his master, impatiently. It was an annoying thing. He had taken an especial fancy for the horse ; and although he knew, and was fond of saying, no groom he had ever known could ride well, still he also knew in his heart of hearts that he could not ride well either, and he did not appreciate horses that kicked people off.

He reflected for a second or two, and then ordered the man to see that a saddle was put on Hawthorne's back. He would ride him himself, as soon as he had been round the stables. "Well, Richards, and how is that brute's leg going on ? " he said genially to an old man who was carefully bandaging a grey mare's leg. " Oh, nicely, thank you, sir. Would you like to see it, sir ? " replied the old man, as he gave the bandage a final turn and deftly tied the string. Then he rose up stiffly, patted the mare's neck, and followed his master out of the box. " And what do you think of the new one, Richards ? " inquired that gentle man, in a would-be careless tone of voice. " A well-shaped one, sir, as ever I saw," was the drily given reply. " But he won't suit us, sir, He's an orkard customer to ride."

It was just what Greyson had said a few minutes ago ; and Mr. Tom Green's boy ish pink and white face became over shadowed with a very decided frown. Richards had picked him up when he had had his first fall off his first pony; he had been an old and valuable servant of his father's long before that, and he had never ceased to think of him as Master Tom, and to imagine that Master Tom was still under his care. And in a way Tom Green was attached to the old man ; but, all the same, it was sometimes tiresome that he would insist upon imagining that he was no good so far as managing an awkward horse went. And that old Richards did hold that opinion was certain. "So it seems," agreed Tom, in a sarcastic tone of voice. " I see he has had Greyson off already, and has hurt his arm." "He has that, sir. And the man is a fine horseman, too.

As good a man as we have ever had in this 'ere stable. No ; there is no doubt, sir, as the horse is a regular brute." Young Green laughed. It was not a very happy or a very natural laugh, but it was meant to be a derisive one. "Well, all I can say is that the horse went like an old sheep with me," he re plied ; "and I shall be very much disgusted if he does not do so again to-day." And so saying he swung himself into the saddle, which by this time was ready for him on Hawthorne's back ; and with an air of seeming unconcern he proceeded to ride out of the stable yard. Old Richards watched him with a sigh. Hawthorne reminded him of old days ; Tom's father had been as fine a horse man as had ever lived, and he had never had anything but thoroughbreds in his stable ; they had been his hobby. And Tom's father had been a master after Richards' own heart.

He was attached to Tom, but he knew very well that Tom's father had been worth a dozen Toms. And he shook his head ominously as he watched Master Tom ride away. " No 'oss but a thoroughbred is worth calling a 'orse, as t' old master used to say ; but Master Tom 'ad a better stick to 'alf-bred 'uns a deal," he muttered to himself as he turned away. " 'E don't want a 'orse, 'e don't ; he wants a machine." That Hawthorne was not a machine, however, was very certain. And before he had gone far he proceeded to explain this fact to his new master. A dog rushed out, and this unsettled him. He began to fidget. His master, who was destined to discover that he was not his master when he was on his back, gave him a job in the mouth, and the next moment received a very good idea of what a job in the mouth felt like.

Up went Hawthorne's head with a jerk, right back into young Green's face, giving him a nasty cut on his lip and an almost stunning blow on his nose. Tom had a temper, and he lost it. "You brute!" he muttered savagely, administer ing another violent job, and lustily apply ing his spurs. Hawthorne gave one bound. (Greyson, who was watching the proceeding with interest from the stable yard gates, de scribed it afterwards by saying "he jumped right up into the trees".) A moment later horse and rider disappeared out of Greyson's sight, and Mr. Tom Green was taking his one and only gallop on the back of his new purchase. At first it did not occur to Mr. Green that he was being run away with. He even congratulated himself on his prompt ness in sticking in his spurs. He told himself that he had done the right thing.

Greyson had evidently let the horse stand still and buck or kick him off, when all that was necessary was to keep him moving until he had tired himself a little and settled down. He was so pleased with his own good horsemanship that he even forgot his bruised nose and bleeding lip. It was so satisfactory to think that the horse was a bit awkward, but that he could manage him. f 22 A DANGEROUS BRUTE. When, however, he began to think that it was time to pull up, he discovered that this was just what he could not do. A fly or a baby could not have had less control over the horse than had he. He gave a terrific haul at the thoroughbred's mouth, and being a strong man, he nearly pulled him on to his haunches. But Hawthorne, who had a mouth which could only be held by a silken thread, merely redoubled his pace.

Jerks and tugs were alike unavailing ; they would have made the horse go faster had he not by then been going at the very top of his speed. Eventually, after having careered several times completely round the park, he stopped of his own accord close to one of the lodge gates. And by this time Mr. Tom Green would have been glad to take him home. He had had a quite sufficiently long trial of Hawthorne. But Hawthorne did not wish to pt> home. He had made up his mind to go through the gates which the lodge keeper was holding open so obligingly for him. Tom, rather carefully this time, ventured to argue the point with him. He had dis covered that jobs in the mouth and the sticking in of spurs did not pay. But, gentle though Tom tried to be, he had no hands, and he had so thoroughly upset the horse's temper that for it to settle down again would be a matter not of minutes but of days.

Hawthorne had one point in his favour at this period of his existence. He had not yet learnt to rear. But he had a way of bounding forward, which though not equally dangerous, was quite as successful in procuring him his own way. To turn a horse when he is in mid air is not an easy matter (you may find it so, Tom Green did not) ; and no sooner did Hawthorne land upon the ground than he bounded off it again,— always in the direction which he wished to go. And it was in this way that he carried his proud possessor through his own an cestral gates.

Chapter III. For Sale Again

About a fortnight later on Mr. Tom Green received the following letter, dated from White's Club :— " Dear Green, " I see you are sending the Gallopard horse up to be sold next Mon day. What is wrong with him? If it is only temper I may possibly make a bid for him. " Yours very truly, "James Browne." And to this letter he replied thus : — " Langton Park, Bragton, " Wednesday. " Dear Browne, " So far as I know there is nothing wrong with the horse, excepting temper. But I cannot recommend you to buy him ; he is a d 1 at that. He shunts my men as fast as they can get on him, and he is the most uneasy brute I was ever on the back of in my life. Of course, he might suit you. I feel sure he can gallop. He will go without reserve. I do not want him back here. " Yours ever, " Thomas J. Green. " P.S. — I forgot his mouth.

He bolts if you touch it, and pulls like a demon." Captain Browne smiled as he folded up this reply. He knew that Tom Green was no horseman, and that he had the worst of hands. And he thought he knew just the kind of mouth that Hawthorne had. It was the one kind of mouth above all others with which it was absolutely impossible for any man who did not possess the very best of hands to deal. FOR SALE AGAIN. 27 He expected that the horse was pro bably a handful ; although he, like Tom Green, had no great belief in the good horsemanship of grooms, and he had none at all in Tom's own. All the same, he made up his mind to make a bid for the horse. He felt sure that he could gallop, and was very likely to pick up a steeplechase or two, and he would probably sell for next to nothing. It was a fore gone conclusion that a single horse like that, unknown, and sent up without reserve, would fetch a very small price.

It would not be possible for him to be up in town himself on the following Monday, which was the day that Haw thorne was to be sold ; but he knew that a friend of his, upon whom he could depend, would be so ; and meeting that friend at his club that same evening, he asked him if he would buy the horse for him. " I cannot be up here on Monday, and I want to have a bid for a horse that is to be sent up to Tattersall's," he said. "If you have nothing particular to do that afternoon, Forester, I shall be really grateful if you would just look him over, and bid for him for me." Colonel Forester, a plain man of about forty, with a lean, athletic figure, and a clever-looking face, replied that he would be very pleased to do so. He had no engagement that afternoon. " The horse is a brown, called Haw thorne, by Gallopard," continued Captain Browne.

He took up a Field as he spoke, turned over its pages, and pointing out an advertisement, handed the paper to his friend. "There he is, you see. He was bought a few weeks ago by young Green of Langton. I fancy he is one of your real hot-headed ones ; but if he can not go the pace, and is not a flyer, I am very much mistaken in my judgment of the horse." FOR SALE AGAIN. 29 Colonel Forester nodded intelligently. " How high am I to go, Browne ? " he inquired, opening out a note-book which he had taken out of his pocket while Captain Browne had been speaking. "He is to be sold without reserve, so he probably will go for next to nothing ; but you can go up to a hundred for him if necessary," was the quietly given reply. Colonel Forester made a note of this. He was rather surprised, but he was one of the last men in the world likely to dis play that feeling.

He arrived at the very natural conclusion that Captain Browne thought uncommonly well of the horse, because Captain Browne was a compara tively poor man, and he was a man who knew very well what he was about. And, as it happened, there was another man in the room who arrived at the very same conclusion. He had been sitting near them, apparently buried behind a newspaper ; and he had been listening with interest to what they had had to say. He was not a friend of theirs, and only knew them in a very superficial kind of way. Between him and both Captain Browne and Colonel Forester would have been found very few ideas in common ; but there was one interest which he shared with them, — that which concerned horse flesh. He had not caught all that had been said, but quite enough to convince him that a really good horse was going to be sold on the following Monday without reserve.

That the horse must be a good horse, he never doubted. Captain Browne had said that he was going to bid a hundred for him for himself, and Captain Browne was known to be one of the best judges of horses of his day. After Colonel Forester and Captain Browne had left the club, Mr. Sharp took FOR SALE AGAIN. 31 up the Field, and looked out the advertise ment of Hawthorne, by Gallopard. And with a smile upon his lips he also made a note of it before he went away.

Chapter IV. With Mr

SHARP. Now Colonel Forester, as Captain Browne had done, took an immense fancy for the Gallopard horse as soon as he saw him. He was certainly out-of-the-way good-looking, and wonderfully well made. He was absolutely sound too. There seemed no doubt about that. And Colonel Forester happened to want a horse just then ; and to be an exceptionally good horseman, as well as a very hard rider to hounds. He hunted in the shires, and wanted a horse which could gallop and jump ; and he felt quite convinced that Captain Browne would not bid a hundred pounds for a horse that he did not feel pretty sure could do both. Colonel Forester was a rich man. He could afford to risk a possible loss. He bid up to a hundred for his friend, and, as the man who had been persistently bidding against him promptly bid a hundred and ten, he took up the bidding on his own account and added another ten.

A hundred and thirty was at once offered for the horse, and Colonel Forester again added another ten. The quick way in which the bidding had gone all through made him feel certain that somebody wanted the horse who knew that he was worth a long price. And Colonel Forester made up his mind that he wanted the horse too, even at a long price. He only stopped bidding when a bid from him of two hundred and twenty had been over-bid. After that he shook his head. The horse might be a very good horse ; but a horse with a temper was not worth more than two hundred and twenty pounds, and he had no intention of being a sufficient fool to give it. So the horse became Mr. Sharp's, at two hundred and thirty pounds, and was, for the second time that month, packed off by rail to a new home. Now, Mr. Sharp was well known, not only in his own country, but with most of the packs in Great Britain, for his fool hardiness in riding to hounds.