LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1926, 27 April 1880, Page 3

LITERATURE.

SKELETON’S IN THE CHALK. [From “ Chambers’ Journal.”] ( Concluded .) After a reception which showed that their acquaintance was not of recent date, and some preliminary conversation, the lady availed herself of a favorable moment to say —‘ Edward, I want you to do something for me. It will not hurt you in any way, and will make me your debtor as long as I live.’ ‘ What is it ?’ asked Lester, though the sudden change in the expression of his face showed that he had a suspicion of what was coming. * Von must prevent Stella from winning.’ ‘ What for ? How are you concerned in the matter ?’ ‘ As soon as I heard that she was certain to win I told Hinton to bet against her as heavily as it was safe to do without exciting suspicion. If she were to wio, every jewel I have, everything, in fact, I possess, would but pay a small portion of my loss.’ * And why didn’t you tell Hinton to back her instead of laying against her ?’ ‘Because I must have money, and without risk—and— and —’ * Exactly,’ said Lester, walking to the other end of the room. ‘ I understand what you mean.’ Both were silent for some minutes. The young man, buried in thought, kept his eyes fixed on his boots. The lady, resuming her seat on the sofa, waited with confidence for

I the moment when he should again look towards her. i Whatever may have been his decision, he seemed for a time to forget it in the spectacle of the beauty of the lady who was waiting for it. But he had to deal with one who had learned the value of being methodical, and before she suffered him to speak oi other matters she insisted on his oonse at to her scheme. This consent she at last obtained. ‘And now,’ said she, ‘as the matter is settled, I will give you what you will want to carry it out.’ She opened a receptacle in which ladies who desire to appear industrious keep wools and such things, and from the bottom of it drew a common pasteboard box ; and from this box she took two capsales of a tawny color, and about the size of a filbert, and showed them to him; and as she put the box in his hand, she said : ‘ Take care you do not strike them, for they break very easily. Hinton got them for me long ago, and he nays they will float on water ; and if dropped into the pail from which a horse is drinking, will pass down his throat, and remain entire for reveral hours. He says they are quite harmless, and that the only effect they will produce on the animal which swallows them is one whi:h would excite no suspicion, and would not prevent his running. Does Hinton know anything about you ?* ‘ Nothing whatever; and he is much t:o cautious a person to ask questions. When Lester had left her, she sat down to think ; after a while, she rose and rang the bell, and as she resumed her seat, she ejaculated : ‘At last, my lord, at last 1’ When the favorite was led into the paddock just previous to the race, there was a cry of admiration when her beautiful proportions and appearance were revealed by the removal of the rng which covered her. She looked about her with an intelligent curiosity, and quiet, subdued manner, almost like a timid lady in a drawing-room who has been asked to sing, and while aware of superior powers is yet rather painfully conscions that all eyes are upon her aa she moves towards the pianoforte. Cheers greeted her from her numerous supporters as she passed with a light elastic tread on to the course: and many congratulated Lord on his success, as though it were a thing certain. Her preliminary gallop seemed to justify the anti ipatinn of her supporters. The signal for starting was given, and away rushed the many-co ! ored riders and horses. Spreading abroad like a cloud at first, then closing up, to finally drop apart piece by piece, the troop flew down the course on their return to the goal. The white face of the rider of Stella showed in the van, and though evidently held back tightly, she was still in advance of the

others, though the pace had been so unusually fast that these were already distressed, and it was clear at a glance to many experienced eyes that neither whip nor spur could stimulate them to increased exertion. As if Lester had been debating in his mind what he could do, and had decided that he would cease to oppose what it seemed so certain would occur in spite of his having performed the shameful task he had undertaken, he gave the mare a cruel out of the whip, and slackened his hand, when she sprang forward, and in an instant was a dozen yards in advance of her competitors. Suddenly she staggered, and nearly fell on her head, recovered her legs partially, raced a few yards further, and then rolled over and over, bruising her rider, who narrowly escaped being trodden upon by the other horses as they swept past. Among the crowd which gathered around the fallen man and horse, the faces of the owner and trainer were conspicuous ; that of the former deadly pale, but quiet; that of the latter flatbed, and every muscle twitchiogwith excitement. No suspicion attached to tester, who too manifestly risked his own life to ba suspected of having any concern in the illness of the animal ho rode, though there were plenty to aver that there must have been a foul cause for such a sudden failure of powers. The doctor?, however, were of a different opinion. They knew of drugs in abundance which would produce similar symptoms, but none which would allow her to run with such speed after their administration, and act so suddenly in the

middle of the race ; they decided, therefore, that it was a rush of blood to the head arising from natural causes. Either they did not know, or it did not occur to them, that there were capsules made of gela iue capable of resisting the internal heat of the body unless raised greatly above its normal temperature. In a few days the mare seemed as well as ever, but her owner was absolutely beggared, and had been ob'iged to steal away from the race course, and without even returning to his housa, to go with all speed to Southampton, thence to Jersey, and from that place to France. Dawkins the trainer, too, had lost the savings of bis whole life, and encumbered himself with a debt which would keep him in poverty for the remainder of his days, especially as he had been a trainer long, and had acted for nobody but Lord Having raised every farthing he could to pay as much of his loss in bets as was in his power, his creditors seized his furniture, and left him with an empty house, a poor shelter for his wife and four little children. This, with the anxiety caused by the disputes connected with the possession of Lord ’a stud, irritated him to a degree that his manner seemed almost ferocious. It was agreed between them that Lester should remain to assist them until the stud was disposed of. One evening the trainer went to Lester’s apartments. Lister being absent, and looking carelessly about the room, he saw lying on the floor a letter. This was not enclosed in an envelope, but oven if it had been, it is not likely that Dawkins would have hesitated to read it from mere curiosity. He opened it, and began to read. The change that came upon him as he did so was frightful. He dashed the letter to the ground, and went into the stable to ask where the jockey had gone. Not receiving a satisfactory answer from the first boy he (■poke to, he snatched up a pitchfork and struck him a blow on the head which stunned him. Another, alarmed by this, at once revealed where Lester was to be fonnd. The sun and moon were shining beside each other in almost cloudless sky; but lienetrating as was the light, there were but ::ew openings fer it among the dense foliage of a large clump of fir trees standing on a sart of Salisbury Plain known as Eerrington’s Down. There was a public footpath through this wood, leading from a few cottages which constituted the village of Litton ; and to this village it wu Lester had gone on the day when the trainer read the letter, which, to hie suspicions mind, was explicit enough to satisfy him that to the jockey's treachery he owed his ruin. Into this wood Lester was seen to enter by two or three women who lived at Litton ; from that day neither he nor the trainer were beheld by mortal eye j it was as if the earth had opened and swallowed them both. Three years after the events described, the woodman, in thinning the firs in the wood near Litton, directed the laborers who worked under his orders to remove, along with those newly cut down, two trunks which had fallen with the soil in which they grew to the bottom of a deep chalk pit, which lay on one side of the wood, close beside the pathway. The mass of chalk and earth which had been carried down by these trees waa very large, and men were sent with carts to remove it, and scatter it over a field which had been sown with grass, being too poor to grow anything else, and only a scanty crop of that. TVhen the men had carted away a portion of this chalk, the pickaxe turned up with its point sticking through a piece of cloth. Finding the cloth could not be pulled out, the earth and chalk lying upon it were removed with great care j when buried in it were found the remains of two men, who w ere identified by the clothes as the trainer Dawkins and Lester ; the foot of the latter and a portion of the leg being detached from the body, was not found until after a considerable quantity more of the earth had been removed. It waa supposed that Dawkins had tried to thrust the jockey from the top of the chalk pit, that he had clung with all his strength to the tree nearest tho edge, and in their desperate straggle, tho roots had been so strained that the loosened chalk gave way in a mass. The opening among the closely interlaced roots must have let Lester’s foot in. by which means it was partly cut and partly torn from the body. The slipping of the earth and chalk in which the second tree grew comi pletely buried every trace of the l> ’ dies ; and ; had not the soil been required for nourishing the growth of grass in the field mentioned, it is probable it would have been left to bei come covered with vegetation ; and the fate of the trainer and the jockey would have been hidden for ever.