oft enough to make bets five
minutes after a race has been run. I've tipped him a hint once or twice,
but bless you, it's no use. It is waste of breath to tell Selwyn that
the men in whose hands he is are manipulating the telephone or wire and
always betting on a dead certainty. One or two of the bets have been
offered to me, but I am not taking any. I daresay you may think I ought
to expose these people, but I've got something better to do."

"I should like to ask you one question," Phillips said. "Have you
noticed by any chance if the people you are speaking about are
particularly lucky in their bets on races run at Mirst Park?"

Rickerby looked admiringly at the speaker.

"Ah!" he exclaimed, "you know more than I gave you credit for, but
perhaps you are in the habit of studying this kind of thing. Now I come
to think of it, I do recollect hearing it said that Selwyn had dropped a
lot of money to these men last Mirst Park Meeting. If you really know
anything, Mr. Phillips, I think you ought to say so."

"Oh, I won't go quite so far as that," Phillips said modestly; "it's
only an idea that occurred to me which I was reminded of by something I
read when I was in South Africa. But mightn't this be a coincidence?"

"I think not," Rickerby replied, "you could hardly say that of a series
of bets in which Selwyn always loses and which are never made till after
the race is run."

"Extraordinary," Phillips said. "But I can't see how it can be anything
more than a mere coincidence. I suppose you do a tremendous lot of late
betting."

"My dear sir, that is exactly what the club is for. Some of us wouldn't
be able to live without it. But, all the same, we don't bet a second
after the official time of starting."

By this time the smoking-room was filling up rapidly. Two or three score
of men had come mainly to hear the result of the afternoon's racing and
to make their bets up to the very last moment that wagers were accepted.
Phillips, apparently perfectly satisfied with what he had heard, lounged
in one corner smoking a cigar, watching the crowd of sportsmen keenly
out of the corner of his eye. He seemed to have one glance, too, for the
weather outside, which had changed somewhat, for the sky was overcast
and flakes of snow were falling. A little later the room was almost in
darkness and the whole world seemed to be lost in a white drift. The
clock over the mantelpiece pointed to nearly twenty minutes past three.
The re