The Second String - Nat Gould (the best motivational books TXT) 📗
- Author: Nat Gould
- Performer: -
Book online «The Second String - Nat Gould (the best motivational books TXT) 📗». Author Nat Gould
He staggered a little, and Jack supported him to a chair.
"Has he been ill?" he asked, turning to Winifred.
"Yes, very ill indeed."
"And if it had not been for Win I should not have pulled through," said Sir Lester.
During the next two or three days Jack Redland gave them an account of his varied experiences, and found attentive listeners. He handed the famous black pearl to Winifred, who was delighted with its dark beauty.
"It must be very valuable," she said.
"Worth a few thousands," said Jack, carelessly.
"He talks about thousands much in the same way as we ordinary mortals do about pounds," said Sir Lester, laughing. "How delightful it must be to be a millionaire."
"I am not that," laughed Jack, "far from it; but as we say in the Colonies, I have made a fair pile, thanks to Barry Tuxford."
"Barry, we have forgotten him; it is ungrateful," said Winifred.
"How did you leave him? He must have been sorry to part with you."
"We did not part, he came with me, he is in London," said Jack.
"And you did not bring him with you," said Sir Lester; "that is ungrateful."
"He would not come," said Jack.
"Not come, why?" exclaimed Winifred.
"Because he said he did not wish to disturb the joy of our meeting," replied Jack, smiling.
"Well done, Barry," said Sir Lester, laughing. "But I hope he will join us soon."
"Yes, he is waiting for his orders to march," said Jack.
"Then write them at once," answered Sir Lester, "We must welcome the man who has done so much for you, Jack."
In response to the summons, Barry Tuxford arrived at The Downs, and was delighted beyond measure with Sir Lester, and Winifred, and everything he saw.
Sir Lester became much interested in him, and they sat together for hours on the terrace, Barry relating his adventures, while Jack and Winifred wandered about the woods and dells, and the birds chanted a welcome to the lovers.
"So you are to float the Redland-Barry Mine," said Sir Lester. "I should like to take some shares."
"As many as you wish," replied Barry, "and you shall have them on the same terms as ourselves. It is a certain thing, Sir Lester, a real good spec."
Barry Tuxford was right, the Redland-Barry Mine shares went like wildfire, and there was a rush in 'Change to buy them. Before many weeks were past Jack was possessed of an ample fortune, and Sir Lester had increased his capital by the addition of many thousands of pounds.
Barry, to use his own expression, "sat tight" and said little, but he alone knew the enormous possibilities of the new El Dorado.
Jack, as a matter of form and courtesy, asked Sir Lester for Winifred's hand. In granting his request, Sir Lester said—
"I have always regarded you as a son, Jack, perhaps that is why I never contemplated the probability of you and Winifred falling in love. It was only after you left England that I found out how deeply she was attached to you. I regretted then that you had left us, but it was all for the best, although I assure you had you returned a poor man I should have put no obstacles in your way. I am glad you had the pluck to go out into the world and fight for your own hand, and nothing gives me more pleasure than to place in your keeping the future happiness of my child."
There was no occasion for a long engagement, and Sir Lester insisted upon Jack taking possession of The Downs until he had purchased a suitable property for himself.
The wedding proved how great was the popularity of both bride and bridegroom in the county, for there was an enormous attendance in the church, and the presents were costly and numerous. Barry Tuxford acted as best man, and quietly told Sir Lester, after the ceremony, that he had never gone through such a severe ordeal in his life.
"But it was worth it all to have the privilege of kissing the bride," he added, at which Sir Lester laughed heartily.
Of course Jack Redland had told Sir Lester all about the victory of Black Boy, and described the race to him in such a graphic way as to arouse his enthusiasm.
"I have brought the colours back with me," said Jack, "and hope to wear them for you before long. I gave Caleb the messages his brother sent and what do you think he suggested?"
"That the sooner you are in the saddle again the better."
"That was one thing, but he proposed that Black Boy should come over here and try what he could do on this side," said Jack.
"A capital idea," replied Sir Lester. "How is it to be done?"
"That will not cause much trouble," replied Jack. "When Barry returns he will see to it, and Joel Kenley will send a good man to be in charge of him during the voyage."
Barry Tuxford returned to Australia in the "Falcon" with Captain Seagrave, who had been at Jack's wedding. Before leaving he promised to take another trip in the course of a year or two.
"And who knows," he added, "but that I may end my days in the old country?"
"I hope you will," said Winifred. "We shall be charmed to have you near us. Promise me you will seriously consider it."
"I'd promise anything you asked," said Barry. "I don't know the man who could resist you, at any rate his name is not Barry Tuxford."
Black Boy arrived safely in England, in charge of Bricky Smiles, who was induced, without difficulty, to remain with Caleb Kenley, and look after the horse. Bricky's lot, in his declining days, had fallen in pleasant places, and he was very grateful to Jack for his kindness.
The Redland-Barry Mine turned out an even greater success than Barry Tuxford anticipated. The crushings were described as wonderful, and the shares went up by leaps and bounds, while the dividends were sufficiently high to make even a South African diamond magnate covetous.
Barry Tuxford arrived in England again in time to stand godfather to Jack and Winifred's second son, and he was very proud of the position.
"Makes me a sort of guardian of the youngster," he said. "I'll not be hard on him when he grows up."
"I do not think you will," replied Winifred, smiling. "You could not be hard upon anyone."
Barry Tuxford made no reply; he had been very hard on some men, but they deserved it.
Harry Marton frequently wrote to Jack. He had prospered exceedingly, and was Barry Tuxford's right hand man.
Sir Lester Dyke, now completely restored to health, often had the pleasure of seeing his son-in-law carry the black and orange jacket to victory, and during the Sussex fortnight there were no more popular colours seen on the racecourse.
THE END SPORTING NOVELS. By NAT GOULD.A RACECOURSE TRAGEDY.
WARNED OFF.
LIFE'S WEB.
SETTLING DAY.
KING OF THE RANGES.
IN ROYAL COLOURS.
A RACING SINNER.
BROKEN DOWN.
THE SILKEN REIN.
THE THREE WAGERS.
RAYMOND'S RIDE.
BRED IN THE BUSH.
BLUE CAP.
IN LOW WATER.
THE GOLD WHIP.
THE RAJAH'S RACER.
A STABLE MYSTERY.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Second String, by Nat Gould
*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SECOND STRING ***
***** This file should be named 35782-h.htm or 35782-h.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/7/8/35782/
Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.
Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is
subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
redistribution.
*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
http://gutenberg.net/license).
Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic works
1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works. See paragraph 1.E below.
1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an
individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in
a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check
the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning
the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
States.
1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the
Comments (0)