"Well, then," said Mr. Welsh, "you're just the bhoy afther me own heart, and I'll give you a thrate you'll remimber to your dyin' day."
"And what's that?" asked the other.
"I'll take you down to the City and Suburban wid me, and give you a dinner and do you fine. Whisht, now, and don't be tellin' any one! Do you know what me thrade is? Well, I'm a bookmaker. You'll see me make, maybe, two hundred pounds to-morrow. I'm not wan of the big bookies; I just dale wid the ordinary men; ha'ff-crowns and five shillin's is what I mostly take. Whisht, now, and listen to me, and I'll tell you what you can do. Faith, it's an idea that has just struck me. Would you like to earn a ten-pound note?"
"Faith, wouldn't I?"
"Well, you can come down and act as me friend. Now, listen to me. We'll take our stand, meself on a tub and you beside me. I'll take the bets, and you'll see the five shillin's and ha'ff-crowns pourin' in; then, when the race is begun, I'll lave you to mind the tub while I run round to see the clerk of the course."
"And what will you want to see him for?"
"Whisht, now," said Mr. Walsh, "and I'll tell you. But you must swear never to split."
"Oh, you may be easy on that."
"Well, he and me is hand in glove. He lets me into all the saycrits, and I give him ha'ff profits on the winnin's. I'll tell him how me bets lie, d'you see? And afther the race, when the jockeys come to be weighed in, he'll kibosh the weights so that the horse that wins will be disqualified, if it suits me book. You tould me you knew nothin' of racin's, so I can't 'xplain the inthricacies of the thing to you, but that's how it lies. Then I'll come back to the tub to find you, and you and me will go and have a good dinner, and there'll be a ten-pound note for you."