THE FORTUNA FILLY.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIV, Issue 814, 12 October 1905, Page 12

THE FORTUNA FILLY.

(By

HOWEL SCRATTON.)

CHAPTER XXVII. — (Continued.) Mr. Nuthall came hurrying along the passage with his settling book in his hand. “ I hope I have not kept you waiting?” he said. “Not at all; but have you finished your settling?” asked Dash. .‘ ‘ Oh, yes; it was not a heavy settlement this week—nothing to what it will be next 1 But do come upstairs. Luncheon will be quite ready lor us,” and he led the way up a wide-stepped stone spiral staircase, and along a passage to a large room with two long tables on which were lobsters, cold beef, a York ham, and other viands. Mr. Nuthall motioned Dash to a seat at one of the small tables, and sat opposite to him. The walls of the room were hung round with magnificent paintings of bygone heroes of the turf, and there were one or two large silver cups and bowls which had been presented to the club by various members, to commemorate seme event of more than ordinary importance to the fraternity of the betting ring. Presently a waiter came, bearing a silver soup tureen. “Oyster soup?” said Nuthall, as he ladled out the white broth in which floated the best Whitstable natives, “ they make it rather well here.” “Thank you,” replied Dash; “there is no soup I like better,” and indeed, when he had tasted it, as prepared by the cook of the “Royal Edward” Club, he was inclined to go a step farther and to say that there was no soup that he liked so well. “ The wine, Waiter,” said Mr. Nuthall, and the subdued fizzing of a carefullyopened bottle of champagne was heard, as the waiter poured out large goblets of red-brown sparkling wine. “What a curious colour!” commented Dash. “Partridge eye,” explained Mr. Nuthall; “it used to be a favourite brand here. Don’t you know it? It is Moet’s.” Dash confessed that he did not know it, but was quite willing, and even anxious, to make its acquaintance, so Mr. Nuthall raised his cornelian-coloured wine and said, “Well, here’s to the Fortuna filly!” “Amen!” said Dash, as he placed his glass to his lips. “That wine is delicious!” he exclaimed. “ G’lad you like it. I thought you would. But here come our chops—we rather pride ourselves on our chops hei-e.” _ The waiter placed a plate containihg an enormous chop before each of them, and then handed mashed ;.ota , '.'»es and beans. When he left the Nuthall began, taking his betting be from his pocket. “ I have backed your filly for you to win, altogether, forty-five thousand pounds. Here are the bets. I should like you to look over them. Do you want any more on ? She stands at a hundred to nine.” “Oh, yes; you might back her to win another fifteen thousand or so,” said Dash. “Very well; I will do the best I can for you, then,” answered Mr. Nuthall. When they had had some prime Stilton cheese and celery, followed by a cup of coffee, Mr. Nuthall proposed that they should go downstairs and have a cigar. “ I should be very glad,” said Dash, “ but I must not stop long, as I have to go to Redford this afternoon—the assizes begin there to-morrow.” “ That won’t interfere with your going to Newmarket, I suppose?” asked Nuthall. “ Not on Wednesday—l shall take good care that it does not; but I shall have to be in court to-morrow.” “ What a pity!” exclaimed Walter. “ Can’t be helped, I’m afraid,” said Dash. “ Well, come along, and we will see how they are betting,” Nuthall exclaimed, and he led the way downstairs and through the hall to a large room in the middle of which there was a billiard table, and leather seats all the length of the wall, with bookmakers seated in a row, like so many linnets on a perch, except that their voices were not so melodious. There Was a tape machine in one corner, and a bar in another, where several members were sitting on high chairs and absorbing cooling refreshment.

Presently a little, round-faced man whom. .Nature,., for some reason, had doomed always to walk on tip-toe, danced up to Nuthall with a betting book in his hand. “ Do you want to back tomething before I tlose my boot?” he lisped, for Mr. Potton had an impediment in his speech, which, however, did not prevent his being a very dangerous wielder of the pencil. “ What will you lay me the Fortuna filly?” asked Nuthall, carelessly. “Fortuna ? I’ll bet you a thousand to ninety !” “Well, you may book that,” said Nuthalll; “but will you join me.and my friend in a glass of kunimel ?” “Timmel ! in bitnet hour ? No thank you; but I’ll take a cup of toffee with pleadure.” “A cup of coffee and two glasses of kummel, please, miss,” said Walter Nuthall, to the lady at the bar. “ Hullo,” cried Potton, suddenly, “ I ’mell a rat ! I’ll bet a tovereign to a tickpence you’ve got ’table tommittion !” Nuthall smiled. “I tay, though, id that the ’table tommittion? Betante if it id, I tant ’tand again’t it !” “Yes,” said Nuthall; “you had better cover your money.” “What’s that you are backing ?” asked Joe Thackeray. “The Fortuna filly,” answered Nuthall. “I’ll lay you ten thousand to one, that one, if you’ve got a commission to do,” said Thackeray. Nuthall looked at Dash, who nodded assent. “ Write it down, then,” said Walter; “you know Mr. Fynes here, I think?” “ Oh, yes; I have had the pleasure of making several bets with him,” replied the bookmaker, and turning to Dash: “ I hope I am not indiscreet in saying that the assumed name of ‘ Mr. Chambers’ is no disguise to me?” Dash laughed. “No,” he said; “but I hope that it will not get about in the Temple that I am on the turf.” “ So far as the Ring is concerned,” went on Mr. Thackeray, “ you may make your mind easy; we know plenty of secrets much more important than that, but we don’t open our mouths much except to shout the odds. I am sure I hope your filly may win.” Just then two bookmakers rose from their seats and joined the group at the bar. “ Can I lay you anything for the Cambridgeshire?” inquired one of them of Nuthall. “ Well, I have just taken ten thousand to one the Fortuna filly,” replied the commissioner. “ A big bet; I could not offer you that, but I should like to lay you half of it.” “ Very well, I will take ten monkeys,” said Walter, quietly. “ Put it down, then, I am just off to Newmarket, good-bye,” and the bookmakers left the room. “ Do you know those two?” asked Nuthall of Dash. “Only by sight; I have never betted with them,” said Dash. “ We call them the snake-eaters; their real names are Fletcher and Rowland. Fletcher is the big chap with the grey beard, and Rowland is the fat one with the beady eyes.” “ Why do you call them the snakeeaters?” Dash inquired. “ Oh, it is an old story. I think it has been in the “ Roseleaf” before now.” “I don’t know it, though; tell it to me.” “ Well,” began Walter Nuthall, “ these two men are partners, and they are both very keen betters, they will wager about anything; so, once when they were taking a holiday together in the west of England, they came upon a dead snake which had been run over by some passing waggon, and cut in half. Rowland looked at it and said to Fletcher, ‘ I will bet you a sovereign you

won’t eat the head of that snake!' ‘Done with you,’ says Fletcher, and pops the beastly thing in his mouth and swallows it. Then he turns to his partner and says, ‘ I’ll bet you another quid you don’t eat the other half.’ Bill Rowland picked up the other bit and ate it, and when it came to settling they found that neither owed the other anything, and they had eaten a rotten snake between them !” Dash laughed heartily at the tale. “1 think I must go now,” he said; “ I am glad to have seen this club. Goodbye—l suppose vou will be at Newmarket?” “Why, certainly!” said Nuthall. “I have followed your tip and backed your mare to win me a nice little stake. Goodbye ” And Dash went back to the Temple and later left for Redford, where he went to the hotel at which the barristers of his circuit had t heir mess. He found a lot of his friends there, and a jovial dinner was the res lit, followed by the old port wine tyh’ch the members of the Circuit Bar keep in their own private cellars in every town to which the pursuit of their profession takes them at the time of the assizes. Later on, cards and dominoes were produced, but the mess butler- brought a note from a local solicitor to Dash with the intimation that the gentleman was waiting in a neighbouring smoking-room to see him. Dash went down and found that Mr. Gorringe, the attorney, had come to call on him to entrust him with the defence of a man charged with horse-stealing. It was a simple case and ought never to have been sent for trial, for there was a perfect answer to the charge. Of course Dash accepted it, and retired to his bedroom with the papers more fully to acquaint himself with the facts. The next day, with a flourish of trumpets, the sheriff’s carriage drew up at the Court House, and Mr. Justice Stokes, in all the magnificence of red robes and black silk stockings, entered the Court and took his seat on the Bench. Cases dragged on through the day, but the one in which Dash was to appear was not called, and he began to fear that it would not be reached until the next day; when, as we know, he had a very pressing engagement at Newmarket. When four o’clock drew near, and there was no sign of his case coming on, he wrote a note to the Clerk of Assize and passed it up to him, asking him to be kind enough to call on the case of Rex v. Quigly next. Sir Philip Stokes saw the note passed, and asked abruptly, “What’s that?” Dash rose and said, “ May it please your lordship, I have asked that the case of Rex v. Quigly may be taken next. I appear for the defendant, and I am very anxious that it should be taken to-day, as I have an important engagement tomorrow, which will make it impossible for me to appear.” “No, no!” said Sir Philip, exasperatingly. “ The order of the cases cannot be changed to suit individuals; you must wait your turn!” Dash looked very crestfallen, and he bowed and left the Court, returning in a few moments in his overcoat, and whispering some words in the ear of the solicitor who had retained him. The solicitor nodded, and Dash went away; but only to the robing-room, where he quickly resumed his wig and gown and waited anxiously for the success of his manoeuvre. He knew the character of the learned judge well, and he was not at all surprised when he heard, at the conclusion of the case which was then in progress, the usher call “ The King against Quigly.” Sir Philip was chuckling to himself, thinking that he had scored off young Fynes, whom he supposed to be on his way to London, but as the crier called the case for the third time, Dash, fully

robed, walked quietly into Court and took his place, prepared to conduct the defence of the falsely-accused Quigly. It'was a short case, and Dash had no difficulty in proving that Quigly had acted bona-fide, in retaining possession of a horse which had strayed upon his. ground, and as soon as a verdict of not guilty was given, Dash jumped into a cab and hastened 1o iiie tailway stalien, where he caught a train to London, and got back to his rooms at about eight o’clock. After a hasty dinner, Dash went down to Chester Square, for it had been agreed that he should call there on his return to town to make arrangements for taking the ladies to Newmarket on the following day. Twitterton was at Mrs. Baines’, and when he heard how Dash had “ spoofed” Mr. Justice Stokes into taking his case, he laughed heartily. “ I don’t think you need have been afraid of not getting away in time to see the Cambridgeshire run for, anyhow, “ Dear old Sir Philip would take care that he had a free afternoon to-morrow, even if he had to sit in Court all night to. complete the list.” “ How are we going down to-morrow?” asked Mrs. Baines. “ Have you settled that?” “If we could all meet at Liverpool Street at ten o’clock, we could go down in a luncheon car and have a snack on the way,” said Dash. “By all means’ ” said Mrs. Baines. “ Delia and 1 will take care to be in good time.”

CHAPTER XXVIII

NEWMARKET. Mrs. Baines and Delia did not fail to reach .Liverpool street punctually at ten o clock, so that they were in plenty of time for the Newmarket Special. They found Dash and Mr. Twitterton waiting for them, and were glad that Dash nad reserved a table in the luncheon car, for the train was very full. After a pleasant run through somewhat uninteresting scenery, and having lunched on board, they hired a carriage for the day and were driven to the course. Delia had no wish to go into the stand or paddock, for she did not desire to meet her father. Sir Robert, as was his wont, was staying at Newmarket for the meeting, in company with his old friend, Lord Thistletou, and had no idea that his daughtei- intended to see the race for the Cambridgeshire. “ If our filly wins, we shall not care who knows that we are there,” said Delia; “but if she gets beaten, I want to slink back to London by the next train, without dad knowing that I have been here.” “Very well, dear; we will sit in our fly on the course until after the race, and Sir Robert will not be likely to see us there, for he is sure to spend all his time in the Birdcage and the Jockey Club stand,” replied Mrs. Baines. “ And I will act as runner for you,” said Twitterton, “ and go to and fro, picking up information and bringing it to you.” “ I will also report .progress at frequent intervals,” joined in Dash. The carriage drew up near the rails, just below the stands, so that the ladies . would have a very good view of the race, and unless it resulted in a very close finish, would be able to see what horse won. Dash went into the Paddock and sought out Joe Tritton, who gave him most reassuring accounts of the welfare of the filly, who had eaten up well that morning, and never looked or went better in her life. They were joined by John Straight, who inquired after the filly, and was told how exceedingly well she was. “ I thought I had a chance with Helvellyn,” said the old trainer, “ but from what you tell me of how your filly went with Phantom City, I can’t beat you !” “ I think she is a real good mare, John,” answered Joe Tritton, “ and I am very thankful to you for putting her in my way. If she wins this race to-day, it will be a great lift to me, and goodness knows I want one!” “ And you deserve one, Joe. But at any rate your filly does you credit. I saw her on the Heath this morning, and she looks splendid!” “Yes,” replied Tritton, looking very pleased at John’s well-merited praise, “ she is a rare doer, and a good constitutioned mare. I never have any trouble except to give her work enough, and as for old Berncastler Doctor, I should think he will thank his stars that his job is finished, for he would not have been able to stand another week of it.” “ Well, he has earned a rest, and he shall have it,” said Dash, and he went back to the carriage to keep the ladies company.

(To be continued.)