'My business will be to get evidence. The first thing is to find out where the fellow lives, and to have him watched and followed, and if possible, caught in the act of posting one of these letters.'
'Remember, Ned, I would above all things avoid publicity, for Dorothy's sake. Nothing is more hateful than for a girl to be talked about, and it is only as a last resource that I would bring a charge against him at the Police Court.'
'I can quite understand that, and will certainly call in no police to my aid until I have previously consulted you and received your sanction to do so. It will be easy enough to find him, for I should know him in an instant, and shall probably meet him at the first racecourse I go to. It is not as if I knew nothing of his habits.'
For the next week Captain Hampton frequented every racecourse within a short distance of London, but without meeting the man he was looking for. Men of the same class were there in scores—some boisterous, some oily-mouthed, some unmitigated ruffians, others crafty rogues.
Several times he accosted one of these men, and inquired if he had seen a betting man having the name of Marvel on his hat; each time the response was the same.
'I have not seen him here to-day. I know who you mean well enough, but he is not here. I can lay you the odds if you like. You would be safe with me.'
Further inquiry elicited the conjecture that 'he might have gone up North, or to some other distant races.'
'There are two meetings pretty well every day,' one said, 'sometimes three, and a man cannot be at them all. What do you want him for? If it is to get money out of him, you won't find the job a very easy one, unless he has happened to strike on a vein of luck. You had much better take the odds from me.'
Captain Hampton explained that his business was a private one, and altogether unconnected with betting.
'Well, if you will give me your name I will let him know that you want to see him, if I happen to run up against him. I should say that he will be at Reading next week.'