"Perhaps, but I'm broke--broke to the world; things have been going precious bad with me lately." The old man tapped Mostyn on the arm with his bony knuckle. "Now, there's you," he continued, "a young man of promise, a sportsman in embryo, keen as they make 'em. You were saying to-day that you wanted to win a big race. Well, here's your chance. You can have Castor for a song, a mere song. What do you say to fifteen hundred pounds?" He leered insinuatingly. "It's the chance of a lifetime." Mostyn laughed aloud. Fifteen hundred pounds! He who had but a tithe of that sum in the world. However, Captain Armitage was hardly to be blamed for the error into which he had fallen, for Mostyn had certainly contrived to give a false impression that day. It was all due to that absurd enthusiasm of his. "I shall never own race-horses," he said humbly. "I've got no money for such things. I was only saying what I felt, not because I hoped ever to do it really." Captain Armitage's hand dropped from Mostyn's arm. His jaw fell and he muttered something in his beard. He was annoyed at having been deceived; he had taken Mostyn for a young man of wealth and position, or he would not have wasted his breath upon him. "Then it was bluff?" he said curtly. "Call it what you like." Mostyn was not prepared to argue the point. "It's certainly true that I have no intention whatever of going in for racing." Once again Captain Armitage muttered in his beard, and Mostyn was quite assured that the remark was not complimentary to himself. They walked on a few paces almost in silence, then suddenly the captain turned his head, and muttering, "There's a friend of mine; so long!" waved his hand airily and was hidden in the crowd that thronged the street. Mostyn stood still, and after a moment or so, he saw the unmistakable figure of his military friend disappearing, unaccompanied, under the flaming portals of a public-house. Mostyn found himself standing alone close to the brilliantly-lit entrance of a well-known music hall, through the doors of which a crowd was pouring out, the entertainment being just concluded. He had never been inside a music hall in his life, and, indeed, the whole aspect of the streets at this time of night was new to him. Tired as he was he watched the scene with interest. Here was Life, as it was understood by most young men of his age.