Boy Woodburn: A Story of the Sussex DownsOllivant, Alfred
General
Boy Woodburn: A Story of the Sussex Downs
Ollivant, Alfred
Sussex (England) -- Fiction
"He's Berserk," said Chukkers doggedly. "A blind man at midnight could
tell that from his fencing. Goes at 'em like a lion. Such a lift to him,
too! Is Monkey Brand goin' to ride him?" he asked Joses.
"No. Turned down. Too old."
"Then the lad as rode him at Lingfield will," said Chukkers. "Sooner him
than Monkey anyway. If Monkey couldn't win himself he'd see I didn't.
Ride me down and ram me. The lad wouldn't 'ave the nerve. Face like a
girl."
"Monkey ain't the only one," muttered Joses. "Silver's in it, too--up to
the neck."
When Joses left to catch his train Jaggers accompanied him across the
yard.
"Yes," he said, "if she wins there'll be plenty for all."
The tout hovered in the gate.
"I'm glad to hear it," he said, with emphasis. "_Very_ glad."
Jaggers threw up his head in that free, frank way of his.
"What, Joses?" he said. "You're not short?"
"Things aren't too flush with me, Mr. Jaggers," muttered the fat man.
Jaggers stared out over the Downs.
"If that Putnam horse was not to start it would be worth a monkey to
you," he said, cold and casual.
The other shot a swift and surreptitious glance at him.
Jaggers had on his best pulpit air.
"Don't start," mused Joses. "That's a tall order."
The trainer picked his teeth.
"A monkey's money," he said.
The fat man sniggered.
"It's worth money, too," he remarked.
"Give you a new start in a new country," continued Jaggers. "Quite the
capitalist."
Joses's eyes wandered.
"I don't say it mightn't fix it," he said at last cautiously. "But it'd
mean cash. Could you give me something on account?"
His Reverence was prepared.
He took a leather case out of his pocket and handed over five
bank-notes.
"There's a pony," he said. "Now I don't want to see you till after the
race. You know me. Me word's me bond. It's all out this time."
With a proud and priestly air he strode back to the house.
CHAPTER XL
Man and Woman
Silver and Joses went back to Cuckmere by the same train from Brighton.
The young man was well-established in a first-class smoker, and the
train was about to start when the fat man came puffing along the
platform. He was very hot; and out of his pocket bulged a brown paper
parcel. The paper had burst and the head of a wooden mallet was exposed.
Silver, quiet in his corner, remarked that mallet.
That night he took a round of the stable-buildings before he went to
bed, as his custom had been of late. There was nobody stirring but
Maudie, meandering around like a ghost who did not feel well.
He went to the back of the Lads' Barn, and looked across the Paddock
Close. A light in the window of a cottage shone out solitary in the
darkness.
It was the cottage in which Joses lived, and the light came from an
upper window.
Silver strolled along the back of the stable-buildings toward it.
Under Boy's window he paused, as was his wont.
A light within showed that the girl was in her eyrie. Then the light
went out, and the window opened quietly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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