"H'm, I see!" said Cleek, puckering up his brows and thoughtfully stroking his chin. "So that, naturally, there is--with this added to the rivalry of the two horses--no very good blood existing between Sir Gregory Dawson-Blake and yourself?"
"No, there is not. If, apart from these things, Mr. Cleek, you want my private opinion of the man, it can be summed up in the word 'Bounder.' There is not one instinct of the gentleman about him. He is simply a vulgar, money-gilded, low-minded cad, and I wouldn't put it beyond him to be mixed up in this disappearance of the filly himself but that I know Chadwick was about the place; and for there to be anything between Chadwick and him is as impossible as it is for the two poles to come together, or for oil to assimilate with water. That is the one thing in this world that Dawson-Blake would not do under any circumstances whatsoever. Beyond that, I put nothing beneath the man--nothing too despicable for him to attempt in the effort to gain his own end and aim. He races not for the sport of the thing, but for the publicity, the glory of getting talked about, and of making the vulgar stare. He wants the blue ribbon of the turf for the simple fame of the thing; and he'd _buy_ it if buying it were possible, and either bribes or trickery could carry off the race."
"H'm! That's a sweeping assertion, Major."
"But made upon a basis of absolute fact, Mr. Cleek. He has twice endeavoured to buy Farrow to desert me by an offer of double wages and a pension; and, failing that, only last week he offered my jockey £10,000 cash on the nail to slip off over to France on the night before Derby Day, and promised him a further five thousand if Tarantula carried off the race."
"Oho!" said Cleek, in two different tones; and with a look of supremest contempt. "So our Tinplate Knight is that sort of a sportsman, is he, the cad? And having failed to get hold of the _rider_----H'm! Yes. It is possible--perhaps. Chadwick's turning up at such a time might be a mere coincidence--a mere tout's trick to get inside information beforehand, or----Well, you never can tell. Suppose, Major, you give me the facts from the beginning. When was the animal's loss discovered--and how? Let me have the full particulars, please."