y began to talk about the race meeting. We always
had a race meeting at Yanyilla once a year, just about the beginning of
November. I forget whether there was a cup in those days, but I know all
the people about were quite as much excited about the Yanyilla meeting
as you are now about the cup. The township was on our run, only three
miles away, and took its name from the station, and the paddock we used
as a race course was just within sight of the house. We always took
great interest in the races, more especially those for the station
horses, which were all supposed to be grass-fed, and therefore, when my
father and his friend got on the subject of the entries, I felt quite
safe and breathed quite freely for the first time that evening.

"I 've entered Boatman for the Yanyilla Steeplechase," said my father,
"but I 'm blest if I know who I 'll get to ride him. The beggar's an
awful powerful brute, and all the boys are afraid."

"And grass-fed! Surely not. He can't do much harm."

"Oh, he 's a brute, I must confess," said my father, "and no mistake;
but he's all there, and if I can get anybody to risk it, I 'll put the
pot on him."

"You think he's good to win, then? Can he beat my Vixen?"

"Beat her! He 'll beat any horse this side of the Dividing Range, once
he gets started with the right man on his back. But there's just the
difficulty."

"Now, I 'll find you a man to ride. He thoroughly understands horses,
I 'll say that for him, though I have no cause to love him. He 'll ride
for you, but I don't believe Boatman is as good as Vixen."

"I 'll lay you anything you like he is, if only I get the right man up."

"Done with you, then. You shall have the right man, that I promise.
Mind, you said anything I liked. You won't go back on your word?"

"Anything to within half my kingdom," laughed my father, who was getting
a good way down his bottle, or I 'm sure he never would have agreed to
what Dick Stanton asked.

"That's settled, then, for I suppose you don't count your daughter near
half your kingdom," said Stanton, and he looked at me as if he would
have said, "See how I pay you out. Then if Vixen beats Boatman I
marry your daughter out of hand; that's the arrangement, isn't it?"

To this day, in spite of after events, I don't believe he was in
earnest, for no man could seriously want to marry a girl who had just
shown him as plainly as possible she was in love with another man. I
think he just wanted to tor