Page:Marsh--The seen and the unseen.djvu/153

Rh Mr. Gill pointed to the chair from which he had lately risen. Mr. Major eyed him. There certainly was something curious about the little man, although he spoke with a matter-of-fact straightforwardness which deprived his words of half their singularity. "Don't be an ass, Gill! Perhaps you can tell me what, by this time to-morrow night, will have happened to me?"

"You! You'll have made your fortune."

Mr. Major laughed at this.

"Thanks awfully. Perhaps you can assist me with a tip or two?"

"That's just what I'm going to do. I'm going to give you all to-morrow's winners. You'll go down. You'll take every farthing you can beg, borrow, or steal. You'll put the whole pile on the first race at starting prices. You'll put the whole pile on again, with all your winnings, on the second race; and you'll do the same on every race; and at the end of the day you'll have won—ah, what a pot!"

"Yes, what a pot! But suppose, in this going the whole hog system of yours, once, only once, I should happen to lose? Where shall I be then?"

"You won't lose; you will win. Take a piece of paper and write down the names of the winners."

Smilingly, perching himself on the edge of the table, Mr. Major took an envelope out of his pocket He prepared to write upon the back of it "Now then, my Gill."

Mr. Gill took a newspaper from the table. For a moment he studied it attentively.

"It's a long programme to-morrow. There are