A Stroke of Luck.

Evening Post, Volume L, Issue 66, 14 September 1895, Page 1 (Supplement)

A Stroke of Luck.

"If it were not for that temper c his, Waterman would be one of the bee horses in training," declared Waterman' owner. "He would, Sir George," agreed Water man's trainer. "As it is, with Adama up he'll beat any horse of his year." " Whioh don't help us, considering th Daleham stable has first call on Adams who's already booked to ride Aldborough v the Eclipse Stakes," grumbled Sir Georg Aylmer, as long and loudly he cursed th ffl-luok whioh had affiioted the only decen horse he possessed with a temper, whioh th. leading jookey of ft rival stable alone coul( control. "If you were to run Waterman for thi Clarence and Avondale at the end of thi month, Adams could take the mount then,' suggested John Daly. Now, a stake of three thousand is not t< be sneezed at, trumpery as it may seem ii comparison with the value of the Eclipsi Stakes. " "Very well," responded his em ployer. " Make sure of Adams, that's all for unless he rides him it's waste of timi and money to start the horse at all." Considering the atrooious way in which in other jockeys' hands, Waterman hac misbehaved, running out of the course a Ascot, stopping three times to kiok a 1 Newmarket, while under Adams' guidanw he trinmphantly carried off the Kemptoi Jubilee Stakes, Sir George had som< grounds for his assertion. For all that Sttle as he guessed it, there did exist ai individual quite aa competent — in his owr opinion, at all events— to cope with Water, man in his tantrums as was the far-famed Adams himself. " It's a bloomin' shame," grumbled Joe Jenkins, as, a week before the First Summer Sandown Meeting, he was dilating to his better-half on the cruel inequalities of fortune. " There was me and Adams, boys together in the same stable. As a lad, lfe gets put up on Cherry Ripe, an 'oss wot couldn't ha* lost if ho' tried, an' there was I on that threecornered devil Cornflower, wot bolted with me after keepin' us nigh on forty minutes at the start. Wotf s the result f Cornflower 'as to be shot, and a good riddance to bad rubbish, an* I'm kid up in 'ospital all through the season, an' not trusted with anything good again in a 'urry. And now there's Adams at the top of the tree, coinin' money, as i/oit know, Liza, it bein' yer own sister as 'c married ; 'ere am I 'angin* round, doin' odd jobs, ridin' sellin' races and such like, an* if I do get into a big race, it's only with a second string, jest to make the runnin'. Ah ! to think aa it wor me as give Adams the tip 'ow to ride Waterman," continued Mr. Jenkins, with a derisive laugh . " ♦ Bill, ' says I, 'I know this 'oss an' wot 'c wants, whioh is 'umourin' ; 'c can win anywhere, any'ow, against anythink, if only 'c does it 'is own way. If 'c 'angs back, don't you shove 'im on. If 'c means makin' the runnin', don't you stop 'im ! ' Bill took the 'int, wins in a canter, and now they say no more bnt Bill can ride 'im, It's siekenin'." "It is," assented his spouse; "an' if Bill was worth 'is salt, bein', so to Bay, one o' the family, Yd speak up for you." ''Not f e. Number one first, the rest nowhere ; that's 'ow it is with Bill." " Why don't you speak to Daly f " "Lord! Daly don't stand no speakin' to, no more nor Sir George 'isself." Mrs. Jenkins considered. She was keenly alive to the foot that, whereas her sister was mistress of a smart villa at Epsom, kept a maidservant, drove her own pony, ana attended the chief race-meetings gorgeous in velvet and silk, she herself, the pick of the family for looks and wits, went about in a patched serge, and lived in dingy lodgings — an injustice which literally shrieked to Heaven for redress. "If BUI couldn't ride at Sandown next week, I s'pose they might put you up?" ■he enquired. " They might, especially if it was at the last minute. But there ain't no chance of luok. Bill's never sick nor sorry.' ' Mrs. Jenkins nodded. " That's as maybe," she said, mysteriously. . How could Bill be prevailed upon at the last moment to give up his mount on Waterman? was the question over which Eliza Jenkins pondered so deeply for the next week. Not by an appeal to his generosity. Bill, as her husband had said, thought first and last of number one. Equally futile was any hope of enlisting sisterly aflection on behalf of one whom Mrs. Adams, at their last encounter, had designated a" spiteful cat," and who, in return, had hurled at her antagonist the epithet of " 'aughty 'ussy." Yet, willing or not, might not Bill for once be made to give way ? In vain did stories of fraud and violence, of wrecked trains and false telegrams, flash through Liza's active brain. They were all very well for the penny dreadful, bnt useless to a sensible woman, with, a wholesome awe of the majesty of the )aw. She was feeling very low, when on the ere of the race her sister, affably oblivious of the late difference, dropped in, after spending the day with an old crony for a cup of tea on the way to the Btation. One does not bear malice towards poor relations, nor does one forego, for the sake of a trifling tiff, the pleasure of patronising them, especially when one happens to be simply yearning to talk of one's husband's Ascot triumphs, and one's own toilette, the component parts of whioh apparently were purple satin shot with green and gold, adorned with promiscuous bows of the same colours, and tartan sleeves, finished off by tight yellow kid gloves, the whole crowned with a rose-garlanded edifice from whose summit waved an orange feather. Having sufficiently dazzled poor Liza with the recital of these splendours, Maria, however, was not unwilling to confess to a orumpled rose-leaf or two on her couch £yen, "I don't like the looks o' Bill," she ctated, " '»'» bin doin' too much, what with the ridin' an* raoketin', an' 'im eatin' nc jnore than 'nd keep a fly . • I'm riglar wore out,' 'c says to me only this mornin' ; * ' nol one wink r ave I slep these four nights, an' if I'm to keep my nerve, an' my name as t jockey— 'aye my night's rest I must am will/ Which is trew. I thought o' lookin in a chemist's for some stuff on my way 'omi to-night." lisa was silent. She was thinking of i uertain bottle in the next room, the opiat< given her when she was half-crazy witt toothache. It was quite harmless, as thi man at the chemist's shop assured her. Thi more you took the longer you slept, that wai all. A tablespoonfnl, for instance, insteai of a teaspoonf ul, would mean twenty hours sleep instead of nine or ten. And in twent; hours' time Waterman's race would be run "I've got some sleeping stuff," she at las said slowly. "It sent me off all right th time I was so bad with toothache. Watsoi gftTO it to me. I'll get it." Leaving th room, she returned immediately with a smal medicine bottle. "A tablespoonful's th dose. You'll find it first-rate." Oh !th snake in the grass. Mrs. Adams eyed i distrustfully and asked if it were safe. She was only partially reassured by th repetition of what the chemist had said o; the subject, supplemented by Liza's declara tion that she herself had taken two bottle and more at odd times with the best possibl affect. The announcement, however, tha Jenkins more than once had derived th utmost benefit from a dose at last allaye her doubts. She remembered the necessit for the preservation of Bill's powers as bread-winner, and pocketed the bottle. " I don't hold with none o' your doctor 1 tnesses as * rule," she said, "but what good for Jenkins won't 'urt Bill, I reckoi I'll give 'im a dose this very night. 'O much did you say ? a tablespoonful ?" Liza nodded. "That's it. I wouldn give more, in case he might sleep long* than was convenient." " No fear," was the confident rejoinde With a triumphant glauce the perfidioi Liza watched her sister out of sight. " Joe's only got an ounce of grit in him Maria not the only one aa 'ull be wearing her si and driving in her carriage next year," w her pleasing reflection. It was with the liveliest annoyance th Sir George Aylmer, on his arrival at Sandov rather late the next day, was greeted 1 Daly with the intelligence of Adams' no appearance on the scene, a non-appearan attributed by common report to a sudd mysterious attack of illness. He refuge ' indeed, to admit the possibility of so diss trons a condition of things. " Nonsense he said, irritably, " th© man's only be detained. We should have beard if an thing had gone wrong. There's plenty time. He'll turn up yet." But Adams did not turn up. All tl turned up was a telegram handed to I George a quarter of an honr later. It v from Mrs. Adams, at Epsom, baldly t nouncing the fact that Adams was too v well to ride that day. The strongest gf»ong language for once was inadequate express Sir George's feelings. Silently handed over the pink paper to Daly. " Tofl pnwell to ride !" muttered the <3 oomfited trainer. " Why didn't he let know then before f" , " Just what I shall make a point of ask; him when next we meet." " I can't understand it. He was all nj yesterday, and he's the soberest man ali Mark my word, Sir George, there s b foul play here." " If so, it shall be exposed, trust me that," was the significant rejoinder. " the meantime Waterman won't start, thi plain." But against this decision Daly rem etrated. Firmly but forcibly ho pointed that one could never tell, and that, if tl had been foul play, by withdrawing Wai man, they were simply playing into tl opponents' hands. Besides, with, the h< onthespot, and in the very pink of conditi it seemed a pity not to let the public at L have a run for their money, and at the si time give a convincing proof of their <

good faith. Sir George, who was aware that a public which has lost its money draws no distinctions between accident and fell >f design, recognised the force of this argument. )t "That's all very fino, "he answered, curtly, > 8 "but where's the jockey to come from at this time of the day ?" Daly deliberated. "Well, there's Jen- - kins!" he finally observed. "Hemightdo i, at a pinch. He's no name, nor yet much experience, but the little he has done for the stable, he's managed very well. And he 6 knows the horse. Waterman went quite '' kindly with him when he rode him in his v trials last year, which is something." 0 ' « Not at all, ' ' snapped the other. "It's ® nothing," for it was "Waterman's pleasing peculiarity rarely to show temper except ® when temper was fatal. Sir George, how11 ever, was heartily sick of the whole affair, and, having wished Daly, Adams, Water6 man, and all their cursed crew at the devil, f he bade his trainer do as he pleased. And this was how, to the gratification of the general public, and the surprise of those 0 "in the know, " No. 1 1 , Sir George Aylmer's n Waterman, ridden by J. Jenkins, figured in 6 the list of starters for the Clarence and ' Avondale Stakes. > "Now we shall bp» some fun," declared 6 the general lun of spectators, who, with nothing much at stake, could afford to watch > with amusement those vagaries which, to * Waterman's owner, were so costly. ' " Now we shall see some fun," chuckled t the backers of Mad Meg and Lodestar, each B of thsm confident of victory now that Water1 man, without Adams, was shorn of half his B danger. > Inscrutable, however, as the workings of 1 Providence, are the ways and means by which i raeoa are lost and won. As it happened ■ they were allmistaken. The only individuals ' to whom the humorous side of the situation presented itself were Sir George and Jenkins. > For, from first to last, there was nothing in t the race but Waterman. In direct defiance 1 of orders Jenkins took the lead at the start ' and broke away, spread-eagling his field, > and, except for one doubtful moment when > Waterman laid his ears back and faltered iv ' his stride, losing a length which he subsequently picked up with ease, the race was an unbroken easy oareer of victory for him. Sir | George, who, determined to prove his indif - ' f erence, was sitting on a coach with his back ' to the horses, could hardly believe his ears i when he heard shouts of " Waterman !" or ' his eyes, when, looking round, he saw his ' horse romping home, an easy winner by four ' or five lengths. ' He is very fond of talking about an incident whioh made Jenkins's reputation, and put into his pockets, as he justly acknowledges, more ready money than he ever had ■ in them before, or is ever likely to have in ' them again. "Adams, you pee," he generally begins, " had been sleeping badly, was i overworked, and feeling generally a wreck, so, to get a proper night's rest, he took an opiate the night before Sandown. What does his fool of a wife do but go and give him au overdose? with the result that when he should have been steering Waterman to victory he was stUl sleeping the sleep of the just. A fine state I was in when I got the wire saying he was laid up. Quite against my better judgment, Daly persuaded me to put up Jenkins, who, as you know, won easily — by a fluke, as I thought, until he repeated the performance a month later in the Eclipse Stakes. Then I realised what a thundering good man he must be— as he is ! Was there any hanky-panky about that opiate, did you say?" in answer to a question put to him. " Blessme, no. Not a bit of it. Purest accident; just to excuse her own carelessness the wife swore she'd been given wrong directions, which explained the rumours afloat at the time, but they hadn't a syllable of truth in them. It was all a mistake, Adams assured me so himself. Anyhow, all's well that ends well. Adams got his nap, and was all the better for it ; and Jenkins, I'm sure, and myself have only too good cause to bless the accident which turned out such a stroke of luck for us both." An accident, was it ? Had she chosen, Mrs. Jenkins, no doubt, could have told a different tale. Only she did not choose; like a wise woman, she kept her own counsel. — Sporting and Dramatic.