A A' ECCENTRIC CHASE. 255 



" Then it could not have been correctly addressed. 

 Where did you send it to ? " I ask. 



"Your rooms, and it was correctly addressed, I'm sure, 

 for I looked carefully," he says. 



" How do you mean looked ? Did not you address it 

 yourself? " I ask again. 



" It just happens I did not. The writing-table was 

 full, so I scribbled a line in pencil, and as no fellow 

 moved, I asked Harquier, who was at the table, to write 

 an envelope to you. I'm certain he did so, for I read it 

 over to see if it was all right," he goes on. 



A light dawns upon me as he continues : — 



" I told you Ihad heard that Muffin Boy wasn't going, 

 and that I had got you 2 to i against King Pippin. I 

 couldn't do better, and had to look round to get that." 



The light becomes more and more vivid. 



Slowly I draw from my pocket Harquier's letter, the 

 epistle which, as recorded at the end of the first chapter, 

 I had put unopened into my pocket, believing that it 

 was simply to say that he could not come to dine with 

 me. 



" That's the letter ! " Leonard cries, and opening it I 

 read, in pencil, " Muffin Boy all wrong. I have put your 

 money on King Pippin. Got you 2 to i." 



Afterwards I heard that Harquier had sent his own 

 communication to me at another club, the one where I 

 had asked him to dine. 



With Leonard's letter in my pocket the whole time, 

 answering so conclusively the query I was anxious to 



