but that her own lover, no matter
what the Hon. Sam said, should give his
homage also to the Blight, in her own
presence, was too much. Mollie looked
around no more. Again the Hon. Sam
rose.

``Love of ladies,'' he shouted,
``splintering of lances! Stand forth, gallant
knights. Fair eyes look upon your deeds!
Toot again, son!''

Now just opposite the grandstand was a
post some ten feet high, with a small beam
projecting from the top toward the spectators.
From the end of this hung a wire,
the end of which was slightly upturned in
line with the course, and on the tip of this
wire a steel ring about an inch in diameter
hung lightly. Nearly forty yards below
this was a similar ring similarly arranged;
and at a similar distance below that was
still another, and at the blast from the
Hon. Sam's herald, the gallant knights
rode slowly, two by two, down the lists to
the western extremity--the Discarded
Knight and the Knight of the Cumberland,
stirrup to stirrup, riding last--where they
all drew up in line, some fifty yards beyond
the westernmost post. This distance