d, "Ain't he a
flat to be always telegraphing these things? As if every fellow in the
office couldn't see his game!"

"Spicer, is it?" asked Beecher.

"Yes; he wants to hear how the horse is,--if there's good running in
him, and what he's to lay on; but that's no way to ask it. I mind the
day, at Wolverton, when Lord Berrydale got one of these: 'Your mother is
better,--they are giving her tonics.' And I whispered to George Rigby,
'It 's about Butterfly his mare, that's in for the York, and that's to
say, "She's all safe, lay heavy on it." And so I hedged round, and
backed her up to eight thousand,--ay, and I won my money; and when
Berrydale said to me after the race was over, 'Grog,' says he, 'you seem
to have had a glimpse of the line of country this time,' says I to him;
'Yes, my Lord,' says I; 'and I 'm glad to find the tonics agree with
your Lordship's mother.' Did n't he redden up to the roots of his hair!
and when he turned away he said, 'There's no coming up to that fellow
Davis!'"

"But I wonder you let him see that you were in his secret," said
Beecher.

"That was the way to treat _him_. If it was Baynton or Berries, I'd not
have said a word; but I knew Berrydale was sure to let me have a share
in the first good thing going just out of fear of me, and so he did;
that was the way I came to back Old Bailey."

It was now Beecher's turn to gaze with admiring wonder at this great
intelligence, and certainly his look was veneration itself.

"Here's another despatch," cried Davis, as the waiter presented another
packet like the former one. "We 're like Secretaries of State to-day,"
added he, laughing, as he tore open the envelope. This time, however, he
did not read the contents aloud, but sat slowly pondering over the lines
to himself.

"It's not Spicer again?" asked Beecher.

"No," was the brief reply.

"Nor that other fellow,--that German with the odd name?"

"No."

"Nothing about Mumps,--Klepper, I mean,--nothing about him?"

"Nothing; it don't concern him at all. It's not about anything you ever
heard of before," said Davis, as he threw a log of wood on the fire, and
kicked it with his foot. "I 'll have to go to Brussels to-night. I 'll
have to leave this by the four o'clock train," said he, looking at his
watch. "The horse is n't fit to move for twenty-four hours, so you 'll
remain here; he must n't be left without one of us, you know."

"Of course not. But is there anything so very urgent--"