“Oh, I agree with you there,” said he. “What sense she had, left her with all that gin she drank. Must’ve been that Katy Tiddle, or someone a bit higher up the ladder.”
“And it was Katy Tiddle from whom I took the pistol, the one that must be a mate to that one brought in to the shop of Joseph Griffin, Gunsmith, by your Mr. Bennett.”
“Yes, well, I’ve spoken to him about that, and he doesn’t know a thing about it, so he says. Can’t imagine how that pistol came into her possession.”
“And you accept that, do you?”
“Oh yes.”
He was, it seemed to me, a bit too quick with his assurances.
“I’ve a question for you,” said Mr. Patley to Deuteronomy.
“And what is that?”
“How did it come that you were so certain that your sister would be here in Newmarket around race day? I was glad when Jeremy here invited me along, but I didn’t expect for a minute that we would find her in this great mob of people-the main reason being I didn’t think that she’d be here, didn’t think there was a chance of it. But here we come, Jeremy and me, and we catch sight of her first day.”
“So I hear. But truth to tell, I was sure she’d be here because she told me she would be.”
“Told you she’d be here?” Patley repeated, somewhat amazed.
“Yes, it was two or three years ago, maybe three or four. Anyways, I’d located her at last, and I’d been riding in races round London for about a year. We was on better terms then, mostly because of little Maggie. She was the sweetest little thing you ever did see back then-small for her age and she couldn’t talk much, but so pretty and just as affectionate as she could be. Took my heart away, she did.
“Anyways, as I said, we was on better terms then, and I took them both to the Crown and Anchor in the Strand, celebrating something or other. Alice kept Maggie quiet giving her little sips of gin-watered down o’course. So the two of them was both gettin’ pretty tipsy, and we hadn’t had a thing to eat yet. Alice was actin’ more silly and sentimental by the minute. Pretty soon she started talkin’ about Maggie’s father. Seems that when she ran off from the farm-the family farm-she wandered round for a while, then come upon Newmarket just as they were gettin’ ready for the races here. Well, for a country girl run away from home there couldn’t be anything more exciting than this here-most particularly when she met a young fella about her age, so tall and fair she’d never seen nothin’ like him ever before. She was just carried away by him, she was.
“‘Oh, Deuteronomy,’ she says to me. ‘He took my maidenhead, yet never was one so freely given. We was together a month or so, then we had our first quarrel-just a little lover’s tiff was all it was, but I got all carried away and left for London right off.’
“But she promised me right then that if ever she got a little money ahead she would go right back up to Newmarket and make another baby with her tall, straw-haired young fellow. That was how she put it. She promised me.”
The rest of that day went much like the one before. We searched for Alice Plummer-without result. There was but this alteration in our plan. Whereas we had spent the morning looking for her between our inn and the track below, we spent the afternoon exploring the area above the Good Queen Bess; for after all, was she not coming down the hill when Constable Patley spied her through the tap-room window? So she was-and so there was naught to do but go higher and search more industriously. Yet how large or small the town of Newmarket was had to play some part in all this. It was not a place of immense size, after all. True, its population had been swollen many times over, but we could cover the space of it in not much more than a couple of hours. And so we wandered through that area upon the hill above and saw that it was much like the area that surrounded the inn. There were inns, stables, houses, no shops to speak of, but many tents, lean-tos, and other temporary shelters. It appeared to me as if the good burghers of Newmarket were making a pretty penny from this notable event, now a feature of the racing calendar.
I recall remarking on this to Mr. Patley in the midst of our searches, and he responded, “Well, it ain’t bad as London for stealing a poor man’s coppers, but you put a lot of money into any town in England, and this is what you’re likely to get.”
“I think if we were to make this tour at nightfall,” said I, “we would find that the residents of the makeshift dwellings are holding their own insofar as separating a poor man from his coppers.”
“P’rhaps so,” said he. “Are you truly proposing that we make such a tour?”
“No, not really. I believe we can spend our time better in another manner. Mr. Deuteronomy said to me earlier that he would be taking Pegasus out for a run in the early evening if the course is not too crowded. I thought you might like to see him put through his paces.”
“Would I, though! Indeed! Just as soon as the sun goes low in the sky.”
Thus was it agreed. We had by that time looked so long and hard for Alice that I felt not the slightest guilt in temporarily deserting our search.
So it was that at the time suggested by Mr. Patley we made our way down the hill to watch Pegasus’s second run of the day. It would not be long until sundown and, again, not long after that before night fell. All the many against whom I had struggled to return to the Good Queen Bess yesterday in the early afternoon were now returning; and so it was a bit of a battle making our way down to the track whereon I had watched Pegasus through his morning workout.
Yet we arrived in ample time, for, just as we approached, I spied Mr. Bennett aiding Mr. Deuteronomy with a leg up into the saddle.
“Look how well he sits up there!” Mr. Patley exclaimed admiringly.
And it was true. I have not done justice to the rider’s seat upon his mount. Though a small man, as I have described him, one had no doubt that he was in command once he took his place upon Pegasus. It was there in his erect posture, even in the set of his features. A few words to the horse-I would have given anything to know what he said-and they were away. The horse went at a trot and only later increased his pace to a canter-and how beautifully the two of them did move together. The way ahead was clear.
Meanwhile did Bennett retire, ducking beneath the rail, then leaning over it, that he might study horse and man better. He, too, in his way, knew horses as well as Mr. Deuteronomy. He stood some distance away from us, so that I was certain that I would not be overheard if I were to voice to Mr. Patley my opinion of him.
“That man there,” said I, nodding toward Bennett.
“The trainer?”
“I suppose that’s what he is, yes. I like him well enough, but I don’t accept his disavowal of all knowledge of how that pistol came into the hands of Katy Tiddle.”
“Disavowal?”
“Denial. Nor do I accept Mr. Deuteronomy’s ready acceptance of that denial.”
“Seemed a little hasty to me, too,” said Mr. Patley. “What do you plan to do about it?”
“Nothing, for the moment,” said I, “but I just wanted you to know how I felt about them-and find out how you felt, too.”
“Much as I like our Mr. Deuteronomy, that’s how I feel.”
We left it at that and turned our attention to the track. This was indeed the time to watch Pegasus at exercise. The light held good for far longer than I expected, and it was not long until the two of them, horse and rider, were the only such pair upon the course. It was then that the rider urged the horse to a canter. And only when all the rail-birds (as they are known) had departed, he allowed Pegasus to break into a full gallop, as the horse had been straining to do for many minutes. ’Twas not, by any means, the horse’s fastest, or so I was informed by Constable Patley. But fast enough it was, and both jockey and mount gloried in it. Nevertheless, it was growing dark-too dark to circle round at such speed. Or so Deuteronomy judged it, for he reined in to a halt just as a most impressive coach and four pulled up at the rail.