RACING ADVENTURERS. 237 



the kind of work which has been indicated. 

 Having a very large connection among book- 

 makers, he was enabled to work the commissions 

 he was entrusted with to the best advantage, 

 and when the time came that those laying the 

 odds became alarmed at being " had," he was 

 able to obtain a choice of men to work for him, 

 so that he could remain in the background and 

 pull the strings quite as effectively as if he were 

 acting openly in his own person. 



This is how he " worked the oracle " when he 

 was entrusted by an owner with a big job in the 

 handicap line — and that was the line he liked 

 best, as it was in that description of race there 

 was most room to do such an amount of business 

 as would result in the winning of a large sum of 

 money. As soon as he knew the name of the 

 horse and the race for which it was to be backed, 

 he would enter into consultation with one or 

 other of his bookmaking acquaintances in order 

 to devise a plan of campaign. The arrangement 

 usually made was that the more responsible 

 country bookmakers, i.e., those in the larger 

 provincial towns and cities, should be communi- 

 cated with, and be asked to lay the odds against 

 " so and so " to a specific amount and at a given 

 price, or no limit might be given in the matter 

 of price ; but a particular hour was generally 

 named at which the commission was desired to 

 be executed by the bookmaker or other appointed 

 agent, so that all the money required was usually 

 obtained by this plan of doing the work. In the 

 course of a day it would become known that a 

 very heavy commission had been worked on 

 behalf of "so and so," for the "such and such" 



