. For a second or
two it was not accepted, and Mr. Burke, of whom you 've heard me speak,
called out from the end of the table, "A sporting offer, by Jove! and
I'll ride for you myself." This I knew was to give me one of the first
horsemen in Ireland; so, while filling my glass and nodding to him,
accepted his offer, I cried out, "Two to one against any horse named
at this moment!" The words were not spoken when I was taken up, at both
sides of the table; and as I leaned across to borrow a pencil from a
friend, I saw that a smile was curling every lip, and that Burke himself
endeavoured with his wine-glass to conceal the expression of his face.
I needed no stronger proof that the whole match had been a preconcerted
scheme between the parties, and that I had fallen into a snare laid
purposely to entrap me. It was too late, however, to retract; I booked
my bets, drank my wine, congeed my friends, went to bed, and woke the
next morning to feel myself a dupe.

'But come, Jack; at this rate I shall never have done. The match was
booked, the ground chosen, Mr. Burke to be my jockey, and, in fact,
everything arranged, when, what was my surprise, my indignation, to find
that the horse I destined for the race (at the time in possession of
a friend) was bought up for five hundred and sent off to England! This
disclosed to me how completely I was entrapped. Nothing remained for me
then but to purchase one which offered at the moment! and this one,
I 've told you already, has the pleasant reputation of being the most
wicked devil and the hardest to ride in the whole west; in fact, except
Burke himself, nobody would mount him on a road, and as to crossing a
country with him, even _he_, they say, has no fancy for it. In any case,
he made it the ground of a demand which I could not refuse--that, in the
event of my winning, he was to claim a third of the stakes. At length
the horse is put in training, improves every hour, and matters seem to
be taking a favourable turn. In the midst of this, however, the report
reaches me, as you heard yourself yesterday morning, that Burke will
not ride. However I affected to discredit it at the moment, I had great
difficulty to preserve the appearance of calm. This morning settles the
question by this letter:--

'"Red House, Wednesday Morning."

'"Dear Sir,--A friendly hint has just reached me that I am to be
arrested on the morning of the Loughrea race for a trifle of a hundred
and eighteen pound