"There's nothing against the law in all that, is there?" asked the cautious Mr. Giveen.
"Law! Of course, there's not, for you and me. If the clerk of the course chooses to earn an honest penny by doin' what he chooses, it's his lookout; no one can touch him either but the Jockey Club, and they daren't say a word, for they're all in it. Why, man alive, what's the Jockey Club for but to jockey the public out of their money? Afther every big race they hold a meetin' and divide the profits; as much as a hundred thousand sometimes is split up between them, the blackguyards! Where did you say you was stayin'? Shepherd's Temp'rance Hotel? Well, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll call for you in the mornin' and take you with me. I'll pay the thrain, for you needn't bother a bit about money when you are along with me."
"Right," said Mr. Giveen.
CHAPTER XXXI
The City and Suburban morning broke fine; one of those April mornings fresh and sweet as spring herself. Mr. French, staying with Major Lawson at Badminton House, just outside Epsom, had awakened from a night of dreams, feeling pretty much as a man may be supposed to feel who expects the hangman as an after-breakfast visitor.
He awoke from sleep with the dead certainty of failure upon him. Months and months of anxiety had passed, obstacle after obstacle had been overcome. The last obstacle was now before him—the race. That, he felt, was insurmountable, and for no special reason. Garryowen had arrived safe at Lawson's stables; the horse was in the pink of condition; Andy was fit and well; the favourite had been scratched two days before; several good horses had been scratched; the betting list had altered considerably since we referred to it last, and Wheel of Fortune was now favourite, White Moth second. These new conditions were not unfavourable to the Irish horse; all the same, the sense of coming disaster weighed on French.
Before breakfast he visited the stables with Lawson who had nothing running in the race, and who was therefore free to admire with an unjaundiced eye the excellencies of Garryowen. Andy had been taken over the course the day before, and had studied its peculiarities, receiving sage advice from Lawson and his master, all of which he listened to with an appearance of respect, but which was scarcely of much profit to him, as his keen eye and judgment could give him, unaided, the ins and outs of any racing track better than the oldest user and frequenter of it.
After breakfast Mr. French went out to smoke a cigar and think things over; Lawson seeing the nervousness and agitation of his friend had promised to look after everything and act as second in this duel with Fortune.