catch before five."

"Then we needn't waste more time," Phillips said. "I suppose you were in
the Post Club all the afternoon."

"My dear sir, I lunched there and I've only just come away. I left a lot
of people there. Rickerby was there, with three or four more of the
gilded plungers, including Selwyn. As to the first and second race----"

"Oh, hang the first and second race," Phillips cried impatiently. "It is
the three o'clock race at Mirst Park that I am interested in. Was there
any heavy wagering going on, and can you tell me who was betting? That's
all I want to know."

The Major went into detail. There had been a certain amount of business
over the three o'clock race, but sundry heavy wagers had been deferred
almost to the last moment. A large amount of chaff had gone on between
one particular plunger and Selwyn and his satellites over a horse called
the Dandy. Dandy had been a rank outsider and had only cropped up in the
betting at the eleventh hour, so to speak. A quarter of an hour before
the race there had been no takers. Then the argument grew more heated
and finally Selwyn had laid several wagers against Dandy at a thousand
to thirty. All this had taken place, so far as the Major could guess,
whilst the race was in progress. There was something like consternation
amongst the bookmakers when the news came that Dandy had won the
Longhill Handicap by three lengths. Altogether it had been a dramatic
afternoon.

"And that's about all I can tell you," the Major concluded. "If you want
me again, give me more notice, please. I really must be going."

He took up his hat and swaggered from the room, leaving Phillips
apparently very well pleased.

"Our case is complete," he said. "The rest is in your hands."

CHAPTER XXXV

A POISONOUS ATMOSPHERE

It is impossible for a man to change the habits of a lifetime,
especially when he has reached the age to which Sir George Haredale had
attained. He tried hard to justify himself in his present embroilment.
He juggled with his conscience, but the ways of the transgressor are
hard, and the master of Haredale Park was having anything but a good
time. He knew that he was doing wrong, that he was about to commit
something in the shape of a crime. When a man has pledged himself to
this kind of thing, it is marvellous how circumstances combine to help
him.

On the face of it things were not going well. The victory of the
Blenheim colt in the Champion Stakes w