Right Royal | Page 6

all depend on a doubtful horse?In a crowded field over Compton Course.
He had backed Right Royal for all he owned.?At thought of his want of sense he groaned.?"All for a dream of the night," he thought.?He was right for weight at eleven naught.
Then Em's sweet face rose up in his brain,?He cursed his will that had dealt her pain:?To hurt sweet Emmy and lose her love?Was madman's folly by all above.?He saw too well as he crossed the yard?That his madman's plunge had borne her hard.?"To wring sweet Em like her drunken father,
I'd fall at the Pitch and end it rather.?Oh I hope, hope, hope, that her golden heart?Will give me a word before I start.?If I thought our love should have come to wreck,?I'd pull Right Royal and break my neck,?And Monkery's shoe might kick my brains out?That my own heart's blood might wash my stains out.
But even if Emmy, my sweet, forgive,?I'm a ruined man, so I need not live,?For I've backed my horse with my all, by Heaven,?To be first in a field of thirty-seven,?And good as he is, the dream's a lie."
He saw no hope, but to fall and die.
As he left the room for the Saddling Paddock?He looked as white as the flesh of haddock.?But Love, all seeing, though painted blind,?Makes wisdom live in a woman's mind:?His love knew well from her own heart's bleeding?The word of help that her man was needing;?And there she stood with her eyes most bright,?Ready to cheer her heart's delight.
She said, "My darling, I feel so proud?To see you followed by all the crowd;?And I shall be proud as I see you win.
Right Royal, Soyland and Peterkin?Are the three I pick, first, second, third.?And oh, now listen to what I heard.?Just now in the park Sir Norman Cooking?Said, 'Harding, how well Right Royal's looking.?They've brought him on in the ring, they say.'?John said, 'Sir Norman, to-day's his day.'?And Sir Norman said, 'If I had a monkey?I'd put it on yours, for he looks so spunky.'?So you see that the experts think as you.?Now, my own own own, may your dream come true,?As I know it will, as I know it must;?You have all my prayer and my love and trust.
Oh, one thing more that Sir Norman said,?'A lot of money has just been laid?On the mare Gavotte that no one knows.'?He said 'She's small, but, my word, she goes.?Since she bears no weight, if she only jumps,?She'll put these cracks to their ace of trumps.?But,' he said, 'she's slight for a course like this.'
That's all my gossip, so there it is.
Dear, reckon the words I spoke unspoken,?I failed in love and my heart is broken.?Now I go to my place to blush with pride?As the people talk of how well you ride;?I mean to shout like a bosun's mate?When I see you lead coming up the straight.?Now may all God's help be with you, dear."
"Well, bless you, Em, for your words of cheer.?And now is the woodcock near the gin.?Good-bye.
Now, Harding, we'd best begin."
At buckle and billet their fingers wrought,?Till the sheets were home and the bowlines taut.?As he knotted the reins and took his stand?The horse's soul came into his hand?And up from the mouth that held the steel?Came an innermost word, half thought, half feel,
"My day to-day, O master, O master;?None shall jump cleaner, none shall go faster,?Call till you kill me, for I'll obey,?It's my day to-day, it's my day to-day."
In a second more he had found his seat,?And the standers-by jumped clear of feet,?For the big dark bay all fire and fettle?Had his blood in a dance to show his mettle.?Charles soothed him down till his tricks were gone;?Then he leaned for a final word from John.
John Harding's face was alert and grim,?From under his hand he talked to him.?"It's none of my business, sir," he said,?"What you stand to win or the bets you've made,?But the rumour goes that you've backed your horse.
Now you need no telling of Compton Course.?It's a dangerous course at the best of times,?But on days like this some jumps are crimes;?With a field like this, nigh forty starting,?After one time round it'll need re-charting.
Now think it a hunt, the first time round;?Don't think too much about losing ground,?Lie out of your ground, for sure as trumps?There'll be people killed in the first three jumps.?The second time round, pipe hands for boarding,?You can see what's doing and act according.
Now your horse is a slug and a sulker too,?Your way with the horse I leave to you;?But, sir, you watch for these joker's tricks?And watch that devil on number six;?There's nothing he likes like playing it low,?What a horse mayn't like or a man mayn't know,?And what they love when they race a toff?Is to flurry his horse at taking off.?The