II

Mr. Warren Telfer was a gentleman of means, and the owner of a

few--very few--racehorses. But he had a great knack of buying hidden

prizes in yearlings, and what his stable lacked in quantity it often

more than made up for in quality. Thus he had once bought a St. Leger

winner for as little as a hundred and fifty pounds. Many will remember

his bitter disappointment of ten or a dozen years back, when his horse,

Matfelon, starting an odds-on favourite for the Two Thousand, never

even got among the crowd, and ambled in streets behind everything. It

was freely rumoured (and no doubt with cause) that Matfelon had been

"got at" and in some way "nobbled." There were hints of a certain

bucket of water administered just before the race--a bucket of water

observed in the hands, some said of one, some said of another person

connected with Ritter's training establishment. There was no suspicion

of pulling, for plainly the jockey was doing his best with the animal

all the way along, and never had a tight rein. So a nobbling it must

have been, said the knowing ones, and Mr. Warren Telfer said so too,

with much bitterness. More, he immediately removed his horses from

Ritter's stables, and started a small training place of his own for his

own horses merely; putting an old steeplechase jockey in charge, who

had come out of a bad accident permanently lame, and had fallen on evil

days.

The owner was an impulsive and violent-tempered man, who, once a

notion was in his head, held to it through everything, and in spite of

everything. His misfortune with Matfelon made him the most insanely

distrustful man alive. In everything he fancied he saw a trick, and

to him every man seemed a scoundrel. He could scarce bear to let the

very stable-boys touch his horses, and although for years all went as

well as could be expected in his stables, his suspicious distrust lost

nothing of its virulence. He was perpetually fussing about the stables,

making surprise visits, and laying futile traps that convicted nobody.

The sole tangible result of this behaviour was a violent quarrel

between Mr. Warren Telfer and his nephew Richard, who had been making

a lengthened stay with his uncle. Young Telfer, to tell the truth, was

neither so discreet nor so exemplary in behaviour as he might have

been, but his temper was that characteristic of the family, and when he

conceived that his uncle had an idea that he was communicating stable

secrets to friends outside, there was an animated row, and the nephew

betook himself and his luggage somewhere else. Young Telfer always

insisted, however, that his uncle was not a bad fellow on the whole,

though he had habits of thought and conduct that made him altogether

intolerable at times. But the uncle had no good word for his graceless

nephew; and indeed Richard Telfer betted more than he could afford,

and was not so particular in his choice of sporting acquaintances as a

gentleman should have been.

Mr. Warren Telfer's house, "Blackhall," and his stables were little

more than two miles from Redbury, in Hampshire; and after the

quarrel Mr. Richard Telfer was not seen near the place for many

months--not, indeed, till excitement was high over the forthcoming

race for the Redbury Stakes, for which there was an entry from the

stable--Janissary, for long ranked second favourite; and then the

owner's nephew did not enter the premises, and, in fact, made his visit

as secret as possible.

I have said that Janissary was long ranked second favourite for the

Redbury Stakes, but a little more than a week before the race he became

first favourite, owing to a training mishap to the horse fancied first,

which made its chances so poor that it might have been scratched at any

moment. And so far was Janissary above the class of the field (though

it was a two-year-old race, and there might be a surprise) that it

at once went to far shorter odds than the previous favourite, which,

indeed, had it run fit and well, would have found Janissary no easy

colt to beat.

Mr. Telfer's nephew was seen near the stables but two or three days

before the race, and that day the owner despatched a telegram to the

firm of Dorrington & Hicks. In response to this telegram, Dorrington

caught the first available train for Redbury, and was with Mr. Warren

Telfer in his library by five in the afternoon.

"It is about my horse Janissary that I want to consult you, Mr.

Dorrington," said Mr. Telfer. "It's right enough now--or at least was

right at exercise this morning--but I feel certain that there's some

diabolical plot on hand somewhere to interfere with the horse before

the Redbury Stakes day, and I'm sorry to have to say that I suspect

my own nephew to be mixed up in it in some way. In the first place I

may tell you that there is no doubt whatever that the colt, if let

alone, and bar accident, can win in a canter. He could have won even

if Herald, the late favourite, had kept well, for I can tell you that

Janissary is a far greater horse than anybody is aware of outside my

establishment--or at any rate, than anybody ought to be aware of,

if the stable secrets are properly kept. His pedigree is nothing

very great, and he never showed his quality till quite lately, in

private trials. Of course it has leaked out somehow that the colt is

exceptionally good--I don't believe I can trust a soul in the place.

How should the price have gone up to five to four unless somebody had

been telling what he's paid not to tell? But that isn't all, as I have

said. I've a conviction that something's on foot--somebody wants to

interfere with the horse. Of course we get a tout about now and again,

but the downs are pretty big, and we generally manage to dodge them

if we want to. On the last three or four mornings, however, wherever

Janissary might be taking his gallop, there was a big, hulking fellow,

with a red beard and spectacles--not so much watching the horse as

trying to get hold of the lad. I am always up and out at five, for I've

found to my cost--you remember about Matfelon--that if a man doesn't

want to be ramped he must never take his eye off things. Well, I have

scarcely seen the lad ease the colt once on the last three or four

mornings without that red-bearded fellow bobbing up from a knoll, or a

clump of bushes, or something, close by--especially if Janissary was

a bit away from the other horses, and not under my nose, or the head

lad's, for a moment. I rode at the fellow, of course, when I saw what

he was after, but he was artful as a cartload of monkeys, and vanished

somehow before I could get near him. The head lad believes he has seen

him about just after dark, too; but I am keeping the stable lads in

when they're not riding, and I suppose he finds he has no chance of

getting at them except when they're out with the horses. This morning,

not only did I see this fellow about, as usual, but, I am ashamed to

say, I observed my own nephew acting the part of a common tout. He

certainly had the decency to avoid me and clear out, but that was

not all, as you shall see. This morning, happening to approach the

stables from the back, I suddenly came upon the red-bearded man--giving

money to a groom of mine! He ran off at once, as you may guess, and I

discharged the groom where he stood, and would not allow him into the

stables again. He offered no explanation or excuse, but took himself

off, and half an hour afterward I almost sent away my head boy too.

For when I told him of the dismissal, he admitted that he had seen

that same groom taking money of my nephew at the back of the stables,

an hour before, and had not informed me! He said that he thought that

as it was 'only Mr. Richard' it didn't matter. Fool! Anyway, the groom

has gone, and, so far as I can tell as yet, the colt is all right. I

examined him at once, of course; and I also turned over a box that

Weeks, the groom, used to keep brushes and odd things in. There I found

this paper full of powder. I don't yet know what it is, but it's

certainly nothing he had any business with in the stable. Will you take

it?

"And now," Mr. Telfer went on, "I'm in such an uneasy state that I want

your advice and assistance. Quite apart from the suspicious--more than

suspicious--circumstances I have informed you of, I am _certain_--I

know it without being able to give precise reasons--I am _certain_ that

some attempt is being made at disabling Janissary before Thursday's

race. I feel it in my bones, so to speak. I had the same suspicion just

before that Two Thousand, when Matfelon was got at. The thing was in

the air, as it is now. Perhaps it's a sort of instinct; but I rather

think it is the result of an unconscious absorption of a number of

little indications about me. Be it as it may, I am resolved to leave no

opening to the enemy if I can help it, and I want you to see if you can

suggest any further precautions beyond those I am taking. Come and look

at the stables."

Dorrington could see no opening for any piece of rascality by which he

might make more of the case than by serving his client loyally, so he

resolved to do the latter. He followed Mr. Telfer through the training

stables, where eight or nine thoroughbreds stood, and could suggest no

improvement upon the exceptional precautions that already existed.

"No," said Dorrington, "I don't think you can do any better than

this--at least on this, the inner line of defence. But it is best to

make the outer lines secure first. By the way, _this_ isn't Janissary,

is it? We saw him farther up the row, didn't we?"

"Oh no, that's a very different sort of colt, though he does look like,

doesn't he? People who've been up and down the stables once or twice

often confuse them. They're both bays, much of a build, and about the

same height, and both have a bit of stocking on the same leg, though

Janissary's is bigger, and this animal has a white star. But you never

saw two creatures look so like and run so differently. This is a dead

loss--not worth his feed. If I can manage to wind him up to something

like a gallop I shall try to work him off in a selling plate somewhere;

but as far as I can see he isn't good enough even for that. He's a

disappointment. And his stock's far better than Janissary's too, and he

cost half as much again! Yearlings are a lottery. Still, I've drawn a

prize or two among them, at one time or another."

"Ah yes, so I've heard. But now as to the outer defences I was speaking

of. Let us find out _who_ is trying to interfere with your horse. Do

you mind letting me into the secrets of the stable commissions?"

"Oh no. We're talking in confidence, of course. I've backed the colt

pretty heavily all round, but not too much anywhere. There's a good

slice with Barker--you know Barker, of course; Mullins has a thousand

down for him, and that was at five to one, before Herald went amiss.

Then there's Ford and Lascelles--both good men, and Naylor--he's the

smallest man of them all, and there's only a hundred or two with him,

though he's been laying the horse pretty freely everywhere, at least

until Herald went wrong. And there's Pedder. But there must have been a

deal of money laid to outside backers, and there's no telling who may

contemplate a ramp."

"Just so. Now as to your nephew. What of your suspicions in that

direction?"

"Perhaps I'm a little hasty as to that," Mr. Telfer answered, a

little ashamed of what he had previously said. "But I'm worried

and mystified, as you see, and hardly know what to think. My nephew

Richard is a little erratic, and he has a foolish habit of betting more

than he can afford. He and I quarrelled some time back, while he was

staying here, because I had an idea that he had been talking too freely

outside. He had, in fact; and I regarded it as a breach of confidence.

So there was a quarrel and he went away."

"Very well. I wonder if I can get a bed at the 'Crown,' at Redbury? I'm

afraid it'll be crowded, but I'll try."

"But why trouble? Why not stay with me, and be near the stables?"

"Because then I should be of no more use to you than one of your lads.

People who come out here every morning are probably staying at Redbury,

and I must go there after them."