“That’s the way with Bill,” she said loyally.  “Folks never know ’is worth till they miss ’im.  Bess allowed to me that before the evenin’s out Gavel will be offerin’ ’is shirt to ’ave ‘im back—­an’ Bess don’t know the worst neither.  They’ve put on a boy to work the engine, an’ Bill ‘as told me things about that boiler o’ Gavel’s . . .  I couldn’ get near enough to read the pressure, but by the way ‘e was pilin’ in coal—­”

She broke off and gazed down the slope.  Even as once the poet Gray looked down from the Windsor’s heights up the distant prospect of Eton College, so did she regard the cluster of naphtha lights around the galloping horses on which, unconscious of their doom, the little victims played.

“But there’s no call to give up an’ cry about it,” she resumed bravely.  “We’re in a tight place, but it’s our turn to play. (That’s another sayin’ o’ Bill’s.  Oh, dear, I wish you’d known ’im!) You see, we know where Glasson is an’ what ‘e’s up to, an’ can look out accordin’.  That’s one card to us.  An’ the next is, I’ve seen Sam Bossom an’ warned ’im.  ‘E was standin’ outside ‘is show, an’ not darin’ to go in; the reason bein’ Mortimer ‘ad picked up a girl from the shootin’ gallery, that used to belong to ’is company, and ‘e an’ she an’ Mrs. Mortimer are doing the last act of Othello life size an’ tuppence coloured, an’ Sam says ‘e can’t look on an’ command ’is feelin’s.  ’E was considerable surprised to see me, an’ started scoldin’; but I left ‘im promisin’ that ‘e’d put a stop to Glasson some’ow, if it had to be on the point o’ the jaw; an’ we’re to nip across and ’ide under the Grand Stand until he comes for us or sends word.  See it?”

She pointed across to a crowded platform on the farther slope—­a structure of timber draped with scarlet cloth, and adorned with palms and fairy lamps.  It stood on the rise a little above and to the left of the roundabout, the flares of which lit up the faces and gay dresses of Sir Elphinstone’s guests gathered there to watch the show.

The two children made down the slope towards it, very cautiously, fetching a circuit of the crowd.  But as they reached the bottom of the dip, on a sudden the crowd spread itself in lines right across their path.  Along these lines three or four men ran shouting, with ropes and lanterns in their hands; and for one horrible moment it flashed on Tilda that all this agitation must be the hue-and-cry.

“Clear the course!  Course, course!  Just startin’—­the great Ladies’ Race!  Clear the course!”

So it was only a race, after all!  Tilda gripped the boy’s hand tightly, and held him at stand-still some paces in rear of the crowd.  But of this caution there was little need.  All the faces were turned the other way; all the crowd pressed forwards against the ropes which the lantern-bearers drew taut to fence off the course.  A pistol-shot cracked out.  Someone cried, “They’re off!” and a murmur grew and rolled nearer—­rising, as it approached, from a murmur into great waves—­waves of Homeric laughter.