More horses were brought out, examined, discussed, and taken back to their boxes. Mr. Spavin knew he had to deal with a good customer, and he wished to show off the resources of his stable. "Bring out 'Niagara,'" he said, presently, and in a few minutes a groom emerged from one of the stables, leading a magnificent bay. "Now, gentlemen," said Mr. Spavin, "that animal is own brother to 'Wild Buffalo,' and if it had not been for my knowledge of that animal's merits I should never have bought the 'Buffalo.' Now, there's apt to be a good deal of difference between human beings of the same family; but perhaps you'd hardly believe the difference there can be between horses of the same blood. That animal is as sweet a temper as you'd wish to have in a horse--and 'Buffalo' is a devil; yet, if you were to see the two horses side by side, you'd scarcely know which was which." "Indeed!" exclaimed Sir Reginald; "I should like, for the curiosity of the thing, to see the two animals together." Mr. Spavin gave his orders, and presently Jim Hawkins, the queer-looking groom, brought out "Wild Buffalo." The two horses were indeed exactly alike in all physical attributes, and the man who could have distinguished one from the other must have had a very keen eye. "There they are, gents, as like as two peas, and if it weren't for a small splash of white on the inner side of 'Buffalo's' left hock, there's very few men in my stable could tell one from the other." Victor Carrington, observing that Dale was talking to the horse-dealer, drew near the animal, with the air of an interested stranger, and stooped to examine the white mark. It was a patch about as large as a crown-piece. "'Niagara' seems a fine creature," he said. "Yes," replied a groom; "I don't think there's many better horses in the place than 'Niagara.'" When Douglas Dale returned to the examination of the two horses, Victor Carrington drew Sir Reginald aside, unperceived by Dale. "I want you to choose the horse 'Niagara' for Lionel Dale," he said, when they were beyond the hearing of Douglas. "Why that horse in particular?" "Never mind why," returned Carrington, impatiently. "You can surely do as much as that to oblige me." "Be it so," answered Sir Reginald, with assumed carelessness; "the horse seems a good one." There was a little more talk and consultation, and then Douglas Dale asked his cousin which horse he liked best among those they had seen. "Well, upon my word, if you ask my opinion, I think there is no better horse than that bay they call 'Niagara;' and if you and Spavin can agree as to price, you may settle the business without further hesitation." Douglas Dale acted immediately upon the baronet's advice. He went into Mr. Spavin's little counting-house, and wrote a cheque for the price of the horse on the spot, much to that gentleman's satisfaction. While Douglas Dale was writing this cheque, Victor Carrington waited in the yard outside the counting-house.