“Good luck. Remember you’re the greatest, and remember what you’ve got to avenge.”

Jake looked suddenly gray. “I can’t go in.”

“Yes, you can. You’re doing it for Macaulay and Miss Blenkinsop.”

“I’m going to throw up.”

“No, you are not. Keep your mouth shut and off you go.”

“Numero Quatre,” called the collecting ring steward irritably.

Jake rode into the ring, obviously quite untogether. He might never have been on a horse in his life. He had the first fence down; and the second he took completely wrong, Macaulay stumbled and nearly came down on the hard ground. Then he hit the third.

Twelve faults. He’s been nobbled, thought Tory in despair.

“He’s blown it,” drawled Dino.

“Oh, my God,” said Fen. In anguish she watched the tenths of seconds pirouetting on the clock as Jake pulled Macaulay up to a standstill, stroked his neck, spoke to him, and started again.

“Can’t even ride his own horse,” said Rupert scathingly. “It was a freak he got to the final anyway.”

“He’s bound to get time faults,” said Colonel Roxborough.

Jake set off again in a somewhat haphazard fashion and cleared the rest of the ten fences, but never really connected all the way round, notching up three and a half time faults.

He shook his head as he rode up to Fen.

“A great start, huh?”

“Competition’s young, you wait,” she said, giving Macaulay a lemon sherbet. Then, when Jake had dismounted, she removed the saddle, which had to be put on Snakepit, the horse Jake was riding next.

“You’ve got three minutes to warm him up,” she said, looking at her watch.

“Needs cooling down, if you ask me.”

Ludwig’s groom came over to collect Macaulay, who went off looking very put out, turning his head continually to gaze back reproachfully at Jake. Jake went up to Snakepit, who flattened his ears and rolled his eyes.

“Now you’ll get your comeuppance,” Dizzy hissed at him.

In the roped-off arena, Macaulay did several wild jumps, nearly unseating Ludwig. He didn’t like the discipline of the German rider. He went into the ring, a mulish, martyred expression on his white face.

“Look at the old moke,” giggled Fen. “Isn’t he lovely?”

Despite his disapproval, however, Macaulay gave Ludwig a good ride and went clear.

“Interesting what that horse can do when it gets a proper rider on its back,” said Rupert.

Dino went in on Clara. He was very nervous and gave Clara very little help, but each time he put her wrong she was so well trained she got him out of trouble, rising like a helicopter off her mighty hocks.

Jake didn’t want to watch Rupert on President’s Man. He was getting acquainted with Snakepit. He spent several minutes rubbing his ears, smoothing his sweating, lathered neck, talking to him softly, and giving him pieces of sugar. Faced with the challenge of a new horse, he was too interested to be nervous.

Next minute he was up, determined not to hang on the horse’s mouth. He went on talking to him. Snakepit was so short in front it was like sitting on the edge of a cliff, a cliff that might crumble any minute and turn into an earthquake. He rode quietly round for one of the two minutes left, stroking and still talking, then put him over a jump, letting him have his head. Suddenly, Snakepit seemed to sweeten up.

“What d’you reckon?”

“Very good,” said Fen. “Must be a nice change for him, like a weekend on the Riviera after working in a factory.”

Cheers from the ring indicated Rupert had gone clear on President’s Man, urging him on by sheer brute force and driving power. The horse, however, was upset.

Jake rode Snakepit into the ring. Snakepit tugged at the bridle and found no one hauling him back, so he stopped pulling and gave Jake one of the easiest rides of his life.

As they came to the upright Jake, out of sheer nervousness, hooked him up a stride too short, but Snakepit, reveling in his newfound freedom, made a mighty effort and cleared the fence easily.

“Bloody hell,” said Rupert. “He’d have stopped if I’d done that to him.”

“Looks a different horse,” said Malise in a pleased voice. Having insisted that Jake was selected, he was desperate for him to ride well.

The colonel grunted. “Still going to win my bet.”

At the end of the second round everyone was clear except Jake, who was on fifteen and a half faults. The crowd was beginning to get bored. They wanted trouble, crashes, upsets, and falls. It was Ludwig’s turn to ride Snakepit.

“I vas in two brains vether to ride heem. I’ve got a vife and children,” said Ludwig to Jake, “but after your round, I doubt if I’ll have any trouble wiz him.”

Snakepit, however, thought otherwise. He didn’t like the harsher, more rigid style of the German, who, like Rupert, wouldn’t give him his head. He deliberately knocked down the upright and kicked out the second part of the combination.

Rupert had no trouble going clear on Clara.

Jake, who was warming up President’s Man, couldn’t resist having a look at Dino on Macaulay.

“The American chef d’equipe told him to give Mac a good whack at the water,” said Fen gleefully, “and Dino’s neglected to take off his spurs, too.”

“Jesus, it’s like riding a charging elephant,” muttered Dino to himself. “Hasn’t he got any brakes?”

Macaulay lolloped crossly into the ring, with a mulish expression on his face. “I’m not a seaside donkey giving rides,” he seemed to say, as he ran out at the upright. Then, having been given a clout with the bat, he jumped it, then proceeded to bring the wall tumbling down.

“Joshua at the battle of Jericho,” said Fen. “Oh goodie, Dino’s whacked him again.”

Coming down to the water Macaulay ground to a halt, them jumped the small brush fence with no effort at all, landing with a huge splash in the middle of the water, absolutely soaking Dino. Then he put his head down and started to drink. The crowd, particularly the Lovell children, screamed with laughter.

Dino finished the course and rode out grinning. “I didn’t expect an impromptu shower,” he said to his teammates.

“That round’s probably lost him the championship,” muttered Fen. “He’s a good loser.”

President’s Man was frightened, puzzled, and muddled. Having been broken and trained by Dino, he’d seldom carried other riders. But now he liked the gentle hands and the caressing singsong voice of the man on his back. Trying to imitate Dino’s acrobatic style, Jake managed to coax a beautiful clear out of him.

“Bloody hell,” said Dino, shaking his head. “You’d figure Manny’d want to avenge me after what Macaulay did to me.”

It was the start of the last round. The excitement was beginning to bite, the crowd had woken up.

“This is a gymkhana event,” grumbled Colonel Roxborough. “I’d never have let my Baskerville Boy go in for this.”

“Rupert’s on zero, Ludwig’s got eight faults, Dino eleven, Jake fifteen and a half, but he’s got the easiest round to come,” said Malise, who was busy with his calculator.

Ludwig rode in first on President’s Man. The young horse was really tired and confused now. He had jumped his heart out for three clears and he’d had enough. Like Snakepit, he preferred the gentleness of his last rider. Despite brilliant tactics from Ludwig, he knocked up eight faults.

“Glory alleluia,” said Fen, rushing up to Jake as he mounted Clara, “Ludwig’s got half a fault more than you now.”

Riding Clara was like driving a Lamborghini. With the slightest touch of the leg she seemed to surge forward. Jake had never known such acceleration. He felt humble to be riding such a horse. The crowd were growing restless again. With three clears under his belt, Rupert was obviously going to walk it.

“Oh dear, oh dear,” said Fen with a total lack of sympathy. “Snakepit’s carting Dino.”

Snakepit, thoroughly over the top, galloped around the ring, taking practically every fence with him, notching up twenty-four faults.

“Actually he did bloody well to stay on,” Fen conceded, as Snakepit carried him unceremoniously out of the ring.

“I think I’ve won my bet,” said Colonel Roxborough.

“Looks like a British victory,” said Malise, wishing he felt more elated.

“Rupert used to own that horse,” said the colonel smugly. “He’ll find him a piece of cake.”

Macaulay thought differently. Rupert had decided not to warm Macaulay up. The horse had already jumped three rounds and anyway, when Rupert had gone up to him, Macaulay had promptly flattened his ears, given a furious squeal of rage and recognition, and struck at him like a cobra. Rupert only just jumped out of the way in time.

“Don’t look,” said Fen to Jake. “It’ll only upset you. Concentrate on Clara.”

“I think Rupert needs our help,” said Colonel Roxborough.

Humpty, Malise, Driffield, Colonel Roxborough, Dizzy, and Tracey all stood round Macaulay’s head, holding on to his bridle for grim death as he stood at the entrance to the arena.

They blocked Macaulay’s view as Rupert got onto his back, but he knew instantly. He seemed to tremble in terror, his ears glued to his head, his eyes seemed all whites in a white face.

But with six of them hanging on, he could do nothing.

“In you go,” said Colonel Roxborough. “Good luck.”

They all jumped away as Macaulay shot forward. The moment he got into the ring, he went up on his hind legs, huge feet shadowboxing, his white face suddenly a mask of malevolence. Then he came down.

“Oh, look,” said Fen in ecstasy. “He’s not going to fail us.”

Taking no notice of Rupert’s brutally sawing hands, Macaulay went into a rodeo act, bucking and bucking and cat-jumping and circling in the air, frantic to get Rupert off.