'There, there!' said Mahon, as he hurried me along towards the scale, 'you have nothing to do with him.' And at the same moment a number of others pressed eagerly forward to shake my hand and wish me joy.
'Look here, Dillon,' cried the Major, 'mark the weight—twelve stone two, and two pounds over, if he wanted it. There, now,' whispered he, in a voice which though not meant for my hearing I could distinctly catch—'there, now, Dillon, take him into your carriage and get him off the ground as fast as you can.'
Just at this instant Burke, who had been talking with loud voice and violent gesticulation, burst through the crowd, and stood before us.
'Do you say, Dillon, that I have lost this race?'
'Yes, yes, to be sure!' cried out full twenty voices.
'My question was not addressed to you, sirs,' said he, boiling with passion; 'I ask the judge of this course, have I lost?'
'My dear Ulick——' said Dillon, in a voice scarce audible from agitation.
'No cursed palaver with me,' said he, interrupting. 'Lost or won, sir—one word.'
'Lost, of course,' replied Dillon, with more of firmness than I believed him capable.
'Well, sir,' said Burke, as he turned towards me, his teeth clenched with passion, 'it may be some alloy to your triumph to know that your accomplice has smashed his thigh-bone in your service; and yet I can tell you you have not come to the end of this matter.'