"

Then from the unresisting child he took a gold watch and three
sovereigns. These he said he would put in a safe place for him, till he
was going home again. He expected to get at least a tenner ready money
for bringing Algy back, and hoped that he might be allowed to keep the
watch into the bargain.

With a light heart he went down town with Algy's watch and sovereigns in
his pocket. He did not return till daylight, when he awoke his wife with
bad news.

"Can't give the boy up," he said. "I moskenoed his block and tackle, and
blued it in the school." In other words, he had pawned the boy's watch
and chain, and had lost the proceeds at pitch and toss.

"Nothing for it but to move," he said, "and take the kid with us."

So move they did.

The reader can imagine with what frantic anxiety the father and mother
of little Algy sought for their lost one. They put the matter into the
hands of the detective police, and waited for the Sherlock Holmeses of
the force to get in their fine work. There was nothing doing.

Years rolled on, and the mysterious disappearance of little Algy was yet
unsolved. The horse-dealer's revenge was complete.

The boy's mother consulted a clairvoyant, who murmured mystically "What
went by the ponies, will come by the ponies;" and with that they had to
remain satisfied.

Chapter V.--THE TRICKS OF THE TURF

It was race day at Pulling'em Park, and the ponies were doing their
usual performances.

Among the throng the heaviest punter is a fat lady with diamond
earrings. Does the reader recognize her? It is little Algy's mother.
Her husband is dead, leaving her the whole of his colossal fortune, and,
having developed a taste for gambling, she is now engaged in "doing it
in on the ponies". She is one of the biggest bettors in the game.

When women take to betting they are worse than men.

But it is not for betting alone that she attends the meetings. She
remembers the clairvoyant's "What went by the ponies will come by the
ponies." And always she searches in the ranks of the talent for her lost
Algy.

Here enters another of our dramatis personae--Blinky Bill, prosperous
once more. He has got a string of ponies and punters together. The
first are not much use to a man without the second; but, in spite of all
temptations, Bill has always declined to number among his punters the
mother of the child he stole. But the poor lady regularly punts on his
ponies, and just as regularly is