A nice partner to be associated with! I here found the true reason for the opposition given to Santorin. The all-important question now was, had the order to scratch the horse been given? Unfortunately the nomination was in my partner's name. Every moment being precious, I immediately sought Mr. Marston, and taxed him with his duplicity.
When he saw that concealment was of no use, and that I was aware of everything, he confessed to a very pretty piece of business. A Jew, to whom he was heavily indebted, had compelled him to sign a letter to Messrs. Weatherby scratching Santorin!
Now the question arose, how to get out of the dilemma? In the then state of the market hedging was simply an impossibility. But I was not going to let the Jew beat us without a struggle, if I could help it. I wanted to save our Cambridgeshire money, if possible; and although the Jew had played on the weakness of my partner, I resolved on making some attempt at getting our money back.
My partner having told me the amount of the bill he owed the Jew, I now considered the best thing would be to endeavour to settle it, and finding I could do so, I desired him to telegraph to Abrahams, and request him to come down to his house the following morning, stating that a matter of the utmost importance required his presence; and when he arrived to ask him how much he was going to allow out of the laying commission? I also desired him to detain the gentleman till my return at luncheon time, if possible, as I intended in the meantime running up to London to procure the money.
When I got to town Santorin was quoted at 33 to 1 offered, and there was nothing about his scratching in the papers. So far good. I saw two men I could implicitly trust, and I arranged that they should be in waiting to attend to my telegrams next day.
In the morning I got the money required, and was back again at Marston's house before luncheon time. The Jew, who had duly arrived, did not seem at all delighted to see me. He evidently began to think that things looked queer.
"I have been asking Abrahams how much he is going to stand us out of his heavy laying commission," said Marston, "but he declares everything has been grossly mismanaged."
"It's the truth, really," answered the Jew; "a complete muddle. I am very sorry I took the affair at all, as I am almost certain to lose by it."
"Perhaps," I said as if in a joke, "you would prefer returning the scratching order and being paid Mr. Marston's debt."