“Here’s a gentleman to see you, Captain.” Tirrett, without farther announcement, opened the door and walked in; thereby relieving the gallant tenant of the apartment from an alarming suspicion which was continually haunting him.
“Ar, Phil me boy, and I’m glad to see you are your own self then, and not a sheriff’s officer. What has brought ye here at this onconscionably early hour of the night? have ye set the Thames on fire, or bolted with the Bank of England?”
“Neither,” was the reply; “both exploits are more in your way than mine; but I’ve not a minute to lose. I’ve just come back from the stables at Shark’s Farm, and I’m to drive that green goose, with a handle to his name, down to look at the horse at eight o’clock.”
“You’ve got his Lordship so far as that, have ye? ’Pon me conscience you’re a clever lad, and your father ought to be proud of ye,” was the complimentary remark this announcement drew forth.
Unheeding it, Tirrett continued: “And now, Captain, before we go any farther, let us come to a clear understanding; the matter, I think, at present stands thus: I sold you the horse for 200 guineas, and half everything he might win during the ensuing year; 100 you paid out of your Derby winnings, 100 you still owe me; you next made a foolish bet, when you were half screwed, that the horse could perform an impossible leap, and in attempting it threw him down and lamed him; from that lameness he has wonderfully recovered—sound I never expect him to get; though, with care and management, he may now be sold and trained; but how are we to arrange about terms?”
“Terms, indeed!” was the astonished reply. “Why, I’ll pay you your second hundred out of the price I get for him; and well content ye should be with your good luck,—for if the nag had gone to the bad, it’s more kicks than ha’pence ye’d have got from Terence O’Brien.”
“Won’t do, Captain,” was the cool rejoinder: “I must have the hundred down, and half whatever you get beyond. Why, there’s a bill of thirty pounds from the ‘Vet.’ for time and medicines, besides the half share of the winnings which I lose by your selling him.”
The angry discussion which ensued, and which ended in O’Brien’s obtaining terms slightly more favourable for himself we will not inflict on the reader; suffice it to say that, ere the associates parted, all their differences were reconciled, and their alliance likely to be cemented more firmly than ever, by their proposed inroad on the credulity and cash of Lord Alfred Courtland.