Page:Marsh--The seen and the unseen.djvu/151

Rh "I placed the first three horses; that's what's about it, and I sent 'em to all my correspondents—I'm making all their fortunes. I am, straight. Why, you know, I'm a tipster; that's what I am, and I ain't ashamed to own it. But though I've been a tipster, I don't know how many years, I mention it to you in confidence that I don't know no more about horses than you do—perhaps not so much. The way I do in general's this. I take the list of probable starters, and I send one horse to one cove, and the second horse to another cove, and so on right through the whole boiling. So somehow, you see, I'm bound to strike the winner, and I don't forget to mention it! But of late I've been upsetting all my regular arrangements. Only the other day I sat down to sort out the bag of tricks as usual, but, if you'll believe me, I couldn't do it. Do you think I could send every man a different animal? Not me! I sent the same animal to all the lot of 'em; and the queerest part of it is, the beggar won!

"When I see that in the evening paper, I tell you I did feel funny. When, the next day, I began dealing them round again, I couldn't do it no more than before. I sent the first three horses to every half-a-crown subscriber, and they romped in just exactly as I'd placed 'em. That was on Friday, in the Billingsgate Stakes; on Saturday, when I saw you in the Strand, I'd just done the same in the Chichester Handicap. Yesterday was Monday, and there wasn't no racing; but to-day in the Exmouth Stakes I've placed the first three horses in the exact order that they came past the post. What do you