BACKERS AND BACKING 171 



long, however, there is a Httle move for Blackthorn, 

 who goes from 9 to 2 to 3 to i, and the ring con- 

 sequently offer to take 7 to 4. What shall he do ? 

 He is not altogether without caution, but thinks 

 that at any rate he'll get a bit back. He will lay 

 70 to 40 — twice ? — yes ! why not ? If he lays 140 

 to 80 he will at any rate only be ^^15 out on the 

 day, which is not very serious for him ; so this he 

 does. 



But something is evidently wrong with the 

 favourite. The creature looks fit and is ridden 

 by a good jockey ; still he is never going well, and 

 the outsider of the party, against whom any odds 

 in reason might have been had, beats the second 

 favourite comfortably by a length and a half, Black- 

 thorn a bad third. Puntington reiterates the 

 remark which Flightly had made earlier in the 

 afternoon, and takes his seat in the train trying to 

 persuade himself that the ^^140 makes his losses on 

 the day something under ^235 ; and then he begins 

 assiduously to study next day's programme with a 

 view to seeing how he can get his money back, 

 making the resolution for about the hundredth and 

 eighteenth time that he will never again lay odds 

 — which in all probability he will do once more 

 at least in the course of the next twenty-four 

 hours. 



