"Well, to put the matter in a nutshell, there has been a good deal of small pilfering down at my trainer's place lately, and I want to get it stopped."
"If I were you I should wait till after the race, and then have him down. If one excites public curiosity just now, one never knows what will happen."
"I think you are right. Anyhow, I'll act on your advice. Now what do you say to coming along to the Rooms with me to see how our horses stand in the market? Your presence there would do more than any number of paper denials towards showing the fallacy of this stupid report. Will you come?"
"With pleasure," said Carne, and in less than five minutes he was sitting beside the noble Earl in his mail phaeton, driving towards the rooms in question.
When he got there, he found Lord Calingforth had stated the case very correctly. The report that Knight of Malta had been stolen had been widely circulated, and Carne discovered that the animal was, for the moment, almost a dead letter in the market. The presence of his owner, however, was sufficient to stay the panic, and when he had snapped up two or three long bets, which a few moments before had been going begging, the horse began steadily to rise towards his old position.
That night, when Belton waited upon his master at bedtime, he found him, if possible more silent than usual. It was not until his work was well-nigh completed that the other spoke.
"It's a strange thing Belton," he said, "and you may hardly believe it, but if there were not certain reasons to prevent me from being so magnanimous I would give this matter up, and let the race be run on its merits. I don't know that I ever took a scheme in hand with a worse grace. However, as it can't be helped, I suppose I must go through with it. Is the van prepared?"
"It is quite ready, sir."
"All the furniture arranged as I directed?"
"It is exactly as you wished, sir. I have attended to it myself."