Colonel Beckett was there, waiting, leaning on a stick. He patted the horse, congratulated the jockey, who unbuckled his saddle and departed into the weighing room, and said to me sardonically, 'That's a fraction of his purchase price back, anyway.'
'He's a good horse, and absolutely perfect for his purpose.'
'Good. Do you need anything else?'
'Yes. A lot more details about those eleven horses… where they were bred, what they ate, whether they had had any illnesses, what cafes their box drivers used, who made their bridles, whether they had racing plates fitted at the meetings, and by which blacksmiths… anything and everything.'
'Are you serious?'
'Yes.'
'But they had nothing in common except that they were doped.'
'As I see it, the question really is what was it that they had in common that made it possible for them to be doped.' I smoothed Sparking Plug's nose. He was restive and excited after his victory.
Colonel Beckett looked at me with sober eyes.
'Mr. Roke, you shall have your information.'
I grinned at him.
'Thank you; and I'll take good care of Sparking Plug he'll win you all the purchase price, before he's finished.'
'Horses away,' called an official: and with a weak- looking gesture of farewell from Colonel Beckett's limp hand, I took Sparking Plug back to the racecourse stables and walked him round until he had cooled off.
There were far more lads in the hostel that evening as it was the middle night of the two-day meeting, and this time, besides getting the talk around again to doping and listening attentively to everything that was said, I also tried to give the impression that I didn't think taking fifty quid to point out a certain horse's box in his home stable to anyone prepared to pay that much for the information was a proposition I could be relied on to turn down. I earned a good few disapproving looks for this, and also one sharply interested glance from a very short lad whose outsize nose sniffed monotonously.
In the washroom in the morning he used the basin next to me, and said out of the side of his mouth, 'Did you mean it, last night, that you'd take fifty quid to point out a box?'
I shrugged.
'I don't see why not.'
He looked round furtively. It made me want to laugh.
'I might be able to put you in touch with someone who'd be interested to hear that for a fifty per cent cut.'
'You've got another think coming,' I said offensively.
'Fifty per cent… what the hell do you think I am?'
'Well… a river, then,' he sniffed, climbing down.
'I dunno…'
'I can't say fairer than that,' he muttered.
'It's a wicked thing, to point out a box,' I said virtuously, drying my face on a towel.
He stared at me in astonishment.
'And I couldn't do it for less than sixty, if you are taking a river out of it.'
He didn't know whether to laugh or spit. I left him to his indecision, and went off grinning to escort Sparking Plug back to Yorkshire.
CHAPTER FIVE
Again on Friday evening I went down to the Slaw pub and exchanged bug-eyed looks with Soupy across the room.
On the Sunday half the lads had the afternoon off to go to Burndale for the football and darts matches, and we won both, which made for a certain amount of back slapping and beer drinking. But beyond remarking that I was new, and a blight on their chances in the darts league, the Burndale lads paid me little attention. There was no one like Soupy among them in spite of what October had said about the cases of doping in the village, and no one, as far as I could see, who cared if I were as crooked as a cork-screw.
During the next week I did my three horses, and read the form books, and thought: and got nowhere. Paddy remained cool and so did Wally, to whom Paddy had obviously reported my affinity with Soupy. Wally showed his disapproval by giving me more than my share of the afternoon jobs, so that every day, instead of relaxing in the usual free time between lunch and evening stables at four o'clock, I found myself bidden to sweep the yard, clean the tack, crush the oats, cut the chaff, wash Inskip's car or clean the windows of the loose boxes. I did it all without comment, reflecting that if I needed an excuse for a quick row and walked out later on I could reasonably, at eleven hours a day, complain of overwork.
However, at Friday midday I set off again with Sparking Plug, this time to Cheltenham, and this time accompanied not only by the box driver but by Grits and his horse, and the head travelling-lad as well.
Once in the racecourse stables I learned that this was the night of the dinner given to the previous season's champion jockey, and all the lads who were staying there overnight proposed to celebrate by attending a dance in the town. Grits and I, therefore, having bedded down our horses, eaten our meal, and smartened ourselves up, caught a bus down the hill and paid our entrance money to the hop. It was a big hall and the band was loud and hot, but not many people were yet dancing. The girls were standing about in little groups eyeing larger groups of young men, and I bit back just in time a remark on how odd I found it; Grits would expect me to think it normal. I took him off into the bar where there were already groups of lads from the racecourse mingled with the local inhabitants, and bought him a beer, regretting that he was with me to see what use I intended to make of the evening. Poor Grits, he was torn between loyalty to Paddy and an apparent liking for me, and I was about to disillusion him thoroughly.
I wished I could explain. I was tempted to spend the evening harmlessly. But how could I justify passing over an unrepeatable opportunity just to keep temporarily the regard of one slow-witted stable lad, however much I might like him? I was committed to earning ten thousand pounds.
'Grits, go and find a girl to dance with.'
He gave me a slow grin.
'I don't know any.'
'It doesn't matter. Any of them would be glad to dance with a nice chap like you. Go and ask one.'
'No. I'd rather stay with you.'
'All right, then. Have another drink.'
'I haven't finished this.'
I turned round to the bar, which we had been leaning against, and banged my barely touched half pint down on the counter.
'I'm fed up with this pap,' I said violently.
'Hey, you, barman, give me a double whisky.'
'ClanI' Grits was upset at my tone, which was a measure of its success. The barman poured the whisky and took my money.
'Don't go away,' I said to him in a loud voice.
'Give me another while you're at it.'
I felt rather than saw the group of lads farther up the bar turn round and take a look, so I picked up the glass and swallowed all the whisky in two gulps and wiped my mouth on the back of my hand. I pushed the empty glass across to the barman and paid for the second drink.
'Clan,' Grits tugged my sleeve, 'do you think you should? '
'Yes,' I said, scowling.
'Go and find a girl to dance with.'
But he didn't go. He watched me drink the second whisky and order a third. His eyes were troubled.
