The Major's Fate
The affair of Prime Minister and the nail was not allowed to fade
away into obscurity. Through September and October it was made
matter for pungent inquiry. The Jockey Club was alive. Mr. Pook was
very instant,--with many Pookites anxious to free themselves from
suspicion. Sporting men declared that the honour of the turf required
that every detail of the case should be laid open. But by the end of
October, though every detail had been surmised, nothing had in truth
been discovered. Nobody doubted but that Tifto had driven the nail
into the horse's foot, and that Green and Gilbert Villiers had shared
the bulk of the plunder. They had gone off on their travels together,
and the fact that each of them had been in possession of about twenty
thousand pounds was proved. But then there is no law against two
gentlemen having such a sum of money. It was notorious that Captain
Green and Mr. Gilbert Villiers had enriched themselves to this extent
by the failure of Prime Minister. But yet nothing was proved!
That the Major had either himself driven in the nail or seen it done,
all racing men were agreed. He had been out with the horse in the
morning and had been the first to declare that the animal was lame.
And he had been with the horse till the farrier had come. But he had
concocted a story for himself. He did not dispute that the horse
had been lamed by the machinations of Green and Villiers,--with the
assistance of the groom. No doubt, he said, these men, who had been
afraid to face an inquiry, had contrived and had carried out the
iniquity. How the lameness had been caused he could not pretend to
say. The groom who was at the horse's head, and who evidently knew
how these things were done, might have struck a nerve in the horse's
foot with his boot. But when the horse was got into the stable he,
Tifto,--so he declared,--at once ran out to send for the farrier.
During the minutes so occupied the operation must have been made with
the nail. That was Tifto's story,--and as he kept his ground, there
were some few who believed it.
But though the story was so far good, he had at moments been
imprudent, and had talked when he should have been silent. The whole
matter had been a torment to him. In the first place his conscience
made him miserable. As long as it had been possible to prevent the
evil he had hoped to make a clean breast of it to Lord Silverbridge.
Up to this period of his life everything had been "square" with him.
He had betted "square," and had ridden "square," and had run horses
"square." He had taken a pride in this, as though it had been a great
virtue. It was not without great inward grief that he had deprived
himself of the consolations of these reflections! But when he had
approached his noble partner, his noble partner snubbed him at every
turn,--and he did the deed.
His reward was to be three thousand pounds,--and he got his money.
The money was very much to him,--would perhaps have been almost
enough to comfort him in his misery, had not those other rascals
got so much more. When he heard that the groom's fee was higher
than his own, it almost broke his heart. Green and Villiers, men of
infinitely lower standing,--men at whom the Beargarden would not have
looked,--had absolutely netted fortunes on which they could live
in comfort. No doubt they had run away while Tifto still stood his
ground;--but he soon began to doubt whether to have run away with
twenty thousand pounds was not better than to remain with such
small plunder as had fallen to his lot, among such faces as those
which now looked upon him! Then when he had drunk a few glasses of
whisky-and-water, he said something very foolish as to his power of
punishing that swindler Green.
An attempt had been made to induce Silverbridge to delay the payment
of his bets;--but he had been very eager that they should be paid.
Under the joint auspices of Mr. Lupton and Mr. Moreton the horses
were sold, and the establishment was annihilated,--with considerable
loss, but with great despatch. The Duke had been urgent. The Jockey
Club, and the racing world, and the horsey fraternity generally,
might do what seemed to them good,--so that Silverbridge was
extricated from the matter. Silverbridge was extricated,--and the
Duke cared nothing for the rest.
But Silverbridge could not get out of the mess quite so easily as
his father wished. Two questions arose about Major Tifto, outside
the racing world, but within the domain of the world of sport and
pleasure generally, as to one of which it was impossible that
Silverbridge should not express an opinion. The first question had
reference to the Mastership of the Runnymede hounds. In this our
young friend was not bound to concern himself. The other affected the
Beargarden Club; and, as Lord Silverbridge had introduced the Major,
he could hardly forbear from the expression of an opinion.
There was a meeting of the subscribers to the hunt in the last week
of October. At that meeting Major Tifto told his story. There he was,
to answer any charge which might be brought against him. If he had
made money by losing the race,--where was it and whence had it come?
Was it not clear that a conspiracy might have been made without his
knowledge;--and clear also that the real conspirators had levanted?
He had not levanted! The hounds were his own. He had undertaken to
hunt the country for this season, and they had undertaken to pay
him a certain sum of money. He should expect and demand that sum of
money. If they chose to make any other arrangement for the year
following they could do so. Then he sat down and the meeting was
adjourned,--the secretary having declared that he would not act in
that capacity any longer, nor collect the funds. A farmer had also
asserted that he and his friends had resolved that Major Tifto should
not ride over their fields. On the next day the Major had his hounds
out, and some of the London men, with a few of the neighbours, joined
him. Gates were locked; but the hounds ran, and those who chose to
ride managed to follow them. There are men who will stick to their
sport though Apollyon himself should carry the horn. Who cares
whether the lady who fills a theatre be or be not a moral young
woman, or whether the bandmaster who keeps such excellent time in a
ball has or has not paid his debts? There were men of this sort who
supported Major Tifto;--but then there was a general opinion that
the Runnymede hunt would come to an end unless a new Master could be
found.
Then in the first week in November a special meeting was called at
the Beargarden, at which Lord Silverbridge was asked to attend. "It
is impossible that he should be allowed to remain in the club." This
was said to Lord Silverbridge by Mr. Lupton. "Either he must go or
the club must be broken up."
Silverbridge was very unhappy on the occasion. He had at last been
reasoned into believing that the horse had been made the victim of
foul play; but he persisted in saying that there was no conclusive
evidence against Tifto. The matter was argued with him. Tifto had
laid bets against the horse; Tifto had been hand-and-glove with
Green; Tifto could not have been absent from the horse above two
minutes; the thing could not have been arranged without Tifto. As
he had brought Tifto into the club, and had been his partner on the
turf, it was his business to look into the matter. "But for all
that," said he, "I'm not going to jump on a man when he's down,
unless I feel sure that he's guilty."
Then the meeting was held, and Tifto himself appeared. When the
accusation was made by Mr. Lupton, who proposed that he should be
expelled, he burst into tears. The whole story was repeated,--the
nail, and the hammer, and the lameness; and the moments were counted
up, and poor Tifto's bets and friendship with Green were made
apparent,--and the case was submitted to the club. An old gentleman
who had been connected with the turf all his life, and who would not
have scrupled, by square betting, to rob his dearest friend of his
last shilling, seconded the proposition,--telling all the story over
again. Then Major Tifto was asked whether he wished to say anything.
"I've got to say that I'm here," said Tifto, still crying, "and if
I'd done anything of that kind, of course I'd have gone with the rest
of 'em. I put it to Lord Silverbridge to say whether I'm that sort of
fellow." Then he sat down.
Upon this there was a pause, and the club was manifestly of opinion
that Lord Silverbridge ought to say something. "I think that Major
Tifto should not have betted against the horse," said Silverbridge.
"I can explain that," said the Major. "Let me explain that. Everybody
knows that I'm a man of small means. I wanted to 'edge, I only wanted
to 'edge."
Mr. Lupton shook his head. "Why have you not shown me your book?"
"I told you before that it was stolen. Green got hold of it. I did
win a little. I never said I didn't. But what has that to do with
hammering a nail into a horse's foot? I have always been true to you,
Lord Silverbridge, and you ought to stick up for me now."
"I will have nothing further to do with the matter," said
Silverbridge, "one way or the other," and he walked out of the
room,--and out of the club. The affair was ended by a magnanimous
declaration on the part of Major Tifto that he would not remain in a
club in which he was suspected, and by a consent on the part of the
meeting to receive the Major's instant resignation.