A Short Head ioi 



May Day had arrived and might find friends. Not for 

 one moment did CHfton think how he could benefit 

 Weymouth ; his sole thought was what he could make 

 for himself out of the afiair. Weymouth, it should be 

 said, was a wealthy baronet, only just of age, who had 

 begun to race. He and Clifton belonged to the same 

 club, the Junior Drake, where Clifton was accepted as 

 something of an authority on turf affairs, and he had 

 persuaded Weymouth that he possessed facilities for 

 anything in the nature of a starting-price commission. 

 Most of the men who did this sort of business were well 

 known to layers, he had explained, and a gentleman 

 had special advantages which the ordinary commissioner 

 did not enjoy. Harvey, who was within earshot in the 

 club when these sentiments were enunciated, had softly 

 remarked to his neighbour that this might be true, but 

 he did not see how the fact of Clifton undertakmg a 

 commission affected the question — an elaborate way of 

 stating his opinion that he did not rank Clifton in 

 the category in which that personage ranked himself. 

 Weymouth, however, a simple-minded, kindly disposed 

 lad, and no judge of character, had remembered Clifton's 

 ' Give me k chance, old boy, Avhen you want anything 

 done,' and though he somehow did not care about Clifton 

 or quite like being called ' old boy ' by him in such a 

 friendly manner, he did not mind giving him the chance 

 he had asked for, particularly as he scarcely knew to 

 whom else to apply. 



Clifton pondered. It would be difficult in the extreme, 

 if not impossible, to get on such a sum in the time at 

 his disposal. It was now eleven, and the race was run at 

 3.45. What should he do ? Try to back the horse for as 

 much as he could ? What was it likely to be, and how 



