"'I suppose they're fair game,' I said.
"'Of course,' he replied. 'The very fairest. But that's nothing to do with you, anyhow. You're in possession of magic and must employ it. They are the natural medium. How much can you muster?'
"'I'd risk anything I could scrape up,' I said. 'Say £750. And you?'
"'Oh, I'm broke,' he replied. 'How many bookies do you know?'
"'Three,' I said.
"'Well,' he replied, 'I know three more, and we can find men who know others, and who will bet for us. Because we must plant this out warily, you know, or they'll be suspicious.'
"'Will you take it in hand,' I asked, 'leaving me £150 for my own commissioners?'
"'Of course,' he said, 'if you'll give me ten per cent.;' and having copied out all the longer-priced winners through the watch-glass he hurried off, promising to meet me at lunch.
"How to get through the intervening time was now the question. First I went to the telegraph office, and then to the barber's to have my hair cut. Forcibly to be kept in a chair was what I needed. The hair-cut took only half-an-hour; so I was shaved; then I was shampooed; then I was massaged; then I was manicured. I should have been pedicured, but the clock mercifully said lunch-time.
"Lisburne was there in a state of fever. He had distributed the £600 among fourteen different commission agents.