JEREMIAH DISCOVERS A "SYSTEM" BY WHICH HE MUST MAKE A LARGE FORTUNE.
Just before the man called out "False start," there had been a momentary
lull in the room, the principal bets having been made and booked, but
when the two words were spoken a buzz of eager inquiries commenced. "How
much Silver Rose?" "Northampton for a pony--what price?" "I'll take
twelves and threes Peter Simple, a tenner each way." "I want to back an
outsider for a fiver." To most of these propositions rapid answers were
returned by a man who seemed to have the direction of affairs. He was a
man with a face like a ribstone pippin and clear grey eyes. A great
number of the propositions led to business and booking on both sides.
Then came the sound of the tape, and another hush, everybody craning
forward to hear the message. "They're off!" said the man at the tape. At
this the betting practically ceased, and all in the room waited in
expectancy, with more or less eagerness. The distinguishing mark of the
company was that nearly every man in it was a swell, half of them, at
least, having titles to their names. Presently the little bell, the
tinkling of which preceded the ticking of each fresh message, rang, and
the tape recommenced its labours. "Result," called the man: "Prickly
Pear first, Silver Rose second, Peter Simple third." A hubbub ensued. "I
told you to back the favourite; it was a dead certainty; at least a
stone in hand." "I've cleared a century." "I lose a hundred and forty.
Cursed luck!" And so on, and so on. In a few instances money changed
hands, and Jeremiah saw the passing of new Bank of England notes. He was
joined by Captain Ablewhite.
"Do you understand it?" asked the Captain.
"A betting club" said Jeremiah.
"Not at all," said the smiling Captain. "A little party of friends
amusing themselves privately, just to pass the time. Do you see that
tall gentleman with the gray moustache? That's Major Rex-Schon. He
backed the favourite for a monkey at even money."
"Who lost it?" inquired Jeremiah.
"The book-maker," said Captain Ablewhite, laughing. "A bad race for him.
So was the first one. Both the favourites have won. He'll get his money
back, with interest, before the day's out. You won a few sovs. last
night; put three or four on Praxis for the next race; a sure thing. The
starters are being called out."
The man at the tape gave the names of the horses as they went up on the
board a hundred miles away. There were eleven, Praxis being among them.
"Butterfly's favourite," said Captain Ablewhite, "and won't win."
The betting on the third race began. How much this?--how much that?--how
much t'other? What's Butterfly's price? Evens. Done for a hundred. I'll
take an even fifty. A pony for me. Five to two, Anonyma. Eights,
Geranium. Eight ponies? All right. Praxis, twenties.
Not one backed the horse recommended by Captain Ablewhite. Jeremiah
screwed up his courage.
"Can I bet a sovereign?" he whispered to the Captain.
"Certainly. Take my advice; make it five."
"No. Two."
"Very well. Forty to two."
He made the bet with the book-maker for Jeremiah, and took four hundred
to twenty for himself.
"I've made yours ready money," he said. "You can give me two sovs. now,
or when the race is over, if Praxis loses."
Jeremiah nodded; he was too much excited to speak; it was his first bet
on a race, and his heart went thump, thump, and he could scarcely
distinguish what was being said. "Horses at the post. False start.
Butterfly bolted." Thus proclaimed the man at the tape.
"I told you so," said Captain Ablewhite to Jeremiah. "Cost three thou.
as a yearling; not worth his keep."
The man at the tape spoke again.
"Butterfly pulled up, and at the post again. Another false start.
Another. They're off!"
Jeremiah did not know whether he was glad or sorry that he had risked
two sovereigns. He was animated by new sensations; the spirit of
gambling was awakened within him.
Then came the result, and Jeremiah could scarcely refrain from shouting
when he heard the name of the winner--Praxis.
"Here's your money," said Captain Ablewhite, after "All right!" was
called out by the man at the tape. He handed Jeremiah four ten-pound
notes. "Easy, isn't it? Done the trick this time. Major Rex-Schon backed
it; he has a system, and has won eight thousand this year if he's won a
penny."
"A system?" said Jeremiah, handling the forty pounds with delight.
"Yes. See which horse he backs in the next race, and follow him. Reckon
you've won thirty pounds, and back the Major's fancy for a tenner."
Jeremiah, after some hesitation, decided to take the advice, and backed
the Major's fancy for ten pounds at six to one. Again he was fortunate,
and he won sixty pounds. His head throbbed with the possibilities of the
future. Major Rex-Schon, satisfied with his winnings, took his
departure, and Jeremiah bet no more on that occasion.
"What are you going to do to-night?" asked Captain Ablewhite.
"Nothing," replied Jeremiah.
"Come and have a bit of dinner with me," said the Captain.
To enjoy anything at another man's expense was an opportunity which
Jeremiah never neglected, and he and Captain Ablewhite had their bit of
dinner at a French restaurant. The Captain was a man of expensive
tastes, and the dinner was the best meal which Jeremiah had ever sat
down to. The wines were hock, champagne, and claret, and Jeremiah took
his share; he was entering upon a new world. When the dinner was over,
and they were finishing the claret and smoking the Captain's best
cigars, Jeremiah's host gave his views of betting on horse-racing.
"The great thing," he said, "is a head for figures. Most men lose; the
clever ones win great fortunes. Major Rex-Schon, when he began to bet,
was a ruined man. He has been at it three years, and is worth fifty
thousand--every penny of it. What he can do, others can do. For my part,
I don't mind confessing it, I haven't a level head, and I lose when I
ought to win. I make up my mind beforehand, and I don't keep to it; I
get led away. If I had been wise, being in the swim as I am, I ought to
be a millionaire; but it's not too late. There are better chances now
than ever. Yes, I ought to have been a millionaire, and I should have
been if I had had a man like you at my back. It's a great thing, you
know, being in the swim, in a position to get at the stable secrets.
Why, there was only yesterday now: the owner of Robert Macaire dropped
me a hint to bet against his horse for the Liverpool Cup. Instead of
taking his advice I, like a fool, mentioned it to Major Rex-Schon. What
does he do? An hour afterwards he bets seven thousand to one against
Robert Macaire, and to-day at one o'clock the horse is scratched.
Result, the level-headed Major is a clear thousand in pocket, which
should have been in mine. Waiter, bring me the _Daily Telegraph_ and the
special _Standard_. Now, look here at the _Telegraph_ this morning. Ah,
here it is. 'Liverpool Cup, 7000 to 1000 against Robert Macaire.' That
was the Major's bet, made last night. Here's the special _Standard_.
'Scratchings: Robert Macaire out of the Liverpool Cup, at 1.10 P.M.' I
don't cry, 'What infernal luck!' I know that I lost a thousand pounds by
my own folly--that's the long and the short of it. I'll tell you what
the best of this kind of speculation is. You get your money; no owings.
Ready money down, if you like; that's what would suit you?"
"Yes," said Jeremiah, sucking in every word, and yet believing that it
was he who was pumping Captain Ablewhite, and not Captain Ablewhite who
was pumping him; "that is the best plan."
"Of course it is. You got your money to-day, didn't you? And how long
did it take? Forty pounds in ten minutes on Praxis. You ought to have
done as I told you, and made a hundred."
"I ought," groaned Jeremiah, feeling as if somebody had cheated him out
of sixty pounds.
"I don't blame you entirely; you are not used to this sort of thing, and
you were cautious. But I'll be bound you never made forty pounds first
and sixty pounds afterward so quickly. That's the beauty of the thing."
"Do you know," inquired Jeremiah, "what the Major's system is?"
"Catch the Major telling anybody!" said Captain Ablewhite. "No, sir; he
keeps it to himself--as you would do if you had a sure thing, as I would
do, as anybody would do. If he finds any one watching him he puts him
off the scent, or drops betting. Know his system! I would give ten
thousand pounds to know it. But what matters? There are more systems
than one, and if there's a man in the country who can discover them, you
are the man. A long head like yours--such a calculator as you! There's
backing first favourites; there's backing second favourites; there's
backing them both together; there's backing outsiders; there's backing
short odds and long odds; there's backing jockeys. If one thing won't do
alone, there are combinations. Why, there never was such a field and
such opportunities for a head like yours! With what I can learn from the
stables, and what you could discover, such an absolute certainty never
presented itself. Everything hasn't been discovered yet. There are a
thousand fortunes in figures and calculations which some fellows will
make. Why not you, for one, and me, for another? I won't make a pretence
of disguising from you that I want a little bit of it. That's natural
enough, and you won't make a pretence of denying it. Fair play's a
jewel. Then there's the people I can introduce you to--young men who
come into great estates and get into messes. There's another field for
you. Keep it all to yourself; but give me a commission. I don't ask for
more than that. The puddings shall be yours; give me a little plum now
and then. Then there's such games as you saw going on last night in my
rooms. There are kites and pigeons, and _we_ know it. Why, some of the
fellows know about as much of baccarat and poker as a blue-bottle--and
they _will_ play when they get a chance! Always have done, and always
will. But the great thing is racing. It's waiting for you and made for
you every day for nine months in the year. Wants a little pluck now and
then; but the result is a moral. Your slow, timid, cautious ones, what
do they make? A hundred a year instead of a hundred thousand."
In this way Captain Ablewhite talked, and Jeremiah listened and took it
all in. A golden field lay before him, a veritable Tom Tiddler's ground.
What a fool he would be to turn his back upon it! Such a chance would
never present itself again.
Behold him, then, a few weeks after this conversation, secretly hand and
glove with Captain Ablewhite, going occasionally to the Captain's rooms
and picking up a few sovereigns; going occasionally to a race-course and
coming home a pound or two the richer, and night after night covering
pages upon pages with figures and calculations from racing-books. He was
very cautious in these gambling transactions, and he suffered tortures
upon nearly every occasion when he sat down in Miser Farebrother's
office, which he regarded as his own, and reckoned up what he might have
won had he been able to screw his courage to the sticking-point. "Had I
done this or that," he thought, "had I had pluck, I should have been so
much in pocket. The Captain told me I should require pluck now and then,
and that the result would be a certainty--and it would have been." At
the end of some three months, during which he was feeling his way, he
calculated that a little courage would have made him the richer at least
by a couple of thousand pounds--for, as is the case with every person
who calculates after the event--he had no doubt that he would have
backed such or such a horse or such and such a jockey, or have adopted
such or such a combination, the issue of which would have been to put
him on the straight, or the crooked, road to fortune. At length he was
convinced that he had discovered a certain system of winning. What that
system was it would be imprudent to explain here, for the reason that it
might lead misguided persons to ruin. Sufficient that Jeremiah was
convinced that it was impossible of failure, and that he had very nearly
nerved himself to plunge boldly into it.
Meanwhile the fever and the infatuation of betting and gambling had
taken such complete possession of him that he thought of little else,
except the safety which lay in his marriage with Phoebe. "For," as he
argued with himself, "supposing that by some extraordinary combination
of circumstances luck should go against me, I should still be all right
if I were the master of Miser Farebrother's business, and if his money
were mine." As for anything in shape of sentiment, that was entirely
outside his domain; his nature was not capable of it. He thought only of
himself, and worked and schemed only for himself.
Meanwhile, also, the course of events was--so far as Jeremiah Pamflett
was mixed up in his affairs--fairly satisfactory to Captain Ablewhite.
Instead of being dunned for the money he owed Jeremiah--which by
Jeremiah's cunning methods of compound interest, was beginning to swell
into an important amount--he borrowed more of him; small sums at a time,
certainly, but, as Captain Ablewhite said to himself, "Little fish are
sweet." As Jeremiah had him in his power, so also the smiling Captain
had managed to obtain a hold upon the man from whom, in ordinary
circumstances, he knew he would get no mercy. Of a different quality of
cunning from Jeremiah's was the standard of Captain Ablewhite's
intellect, but, properly handled, it was scarcely less powerful. All his
life had Captain Ablewhite lived upon his wits, eating and drinking of
the best, a member of good clubs, living in fashionable quarters, owing
money right and left, and yet managing somehow to keep out of water too
hot for him. He entertained a very thorough and sincere contempt for
Jeremiah, laughed in his sleeve at his meanness, fooled him on and on,
allowed him to win a little at his card-parties, introduced him to men
as impecunious and unscrupulous as himself, who borrowed money of
Jeremiah, and would have pulled his nose upon the smallest provocation.
But Jeremiah was always humble, cringing, and subservient, biding his
time for the grand coup which would make him as good as the best among
them. And so the game went on, its minutest detail assisting to bring to
a terrible climax the tragedy in which Phoebe's life was presently to
be engulfed. This brings us to the day upon which our heroine,
accompanied by Fred Cornwall and dear Aunt Leth, journeyed to Parksides
to ask her father's consent to her engagement with the young lawyer.