THE FATHERS OF BOOKMAKING 23 



Ratan he was in glorious health, with a skin like satin and 

 muscles of steel. When he showed on the downs the next 

 morning his coat was standing " like quills upon the fretful 

 porcupine," his eyes were dilated, and he shivered like a 

 man with the ague. The villainous confederacy had struck 

 its blow in the night, and the noble horse was absolutely 

 last among a lot whom he could have distanced had he 

 been well. 



The news was brought to "Old Crocky" as he lay 

 desperately ill, and it killed him. Two days later, on the 

 24th May, just after the Oaks had been run, the rumour 

 spread upon the downs that " Old Crocky " was dead. He 

 had died that morning at his mansion in Carlton House 

 Terrace, within a week of his seventieth year. 



The following very sensational story has at any rate the 

 authority of the late Serjeant Ballantine to support it. 



Crockford had been very ill for some time, and about one 

 o'clock on the morning of the Epsom Meeting he was seized 

 with a fit, and died within an hour. Of course, death 

 cancels all bets, and the utmost consternation reigned 

 among the satellites about him at this untoward event, by 

 which they might lose thousands. What was to be done ? 

 In the grey dawn of that May morning some half-dozen 

 white-faced men took counsel together and came to the 

 desperate resolution of concealing the old man's demise for 

 twenty-four hours ; no one, of course, being allowed to 

 approach the chamber of death save those in the secret. 

 How anxiously they waited for the carrier pigeons, which 

 in those pre-telegraph days conveyed the news to anxious 

 backers ! They came at last, with the intelligence that 

 Running Rein had won. And now, that no suspicion 

 might attach to them, they clad the corpse in its usual 

 costume, put the well-known white hat upon the head, and 

 carrying it to the first-floor front room facing St James's 

 Street, set it down on a chair at the open window so that 

 people returning from Epsom might see it, and, as it were, 

 establish the alibi. The next morning the news went 

 abroad that the old man had passed away in the night, and 

 it was only some time afterwards that the secret leaked out. 



But, in the meantime, a curious nemesis fell upon the 



