‘And does he ever put anything on a horse he fancies?’
‘Well — I don’t want to give him away — he’s a young sport, a fine sport, sir. Would you mind asking him himself? He sort of takes a pleasure in it, and perhaps he’d feel I was giving him away, sir, if you don’t mind.’
Bassett was serious as a church.
The uncle went back to his nephew, and took him off for a ride in the car.
‘Say, Paul, old man, do you ever put anything on a horse?’ the uncle asked.
The boy watched the handsome man closely.
‘Why, do you think I oughtn’t to?’ he parried.
‘Not a bit of it! I thought perhaps you might give me a tip for the Lincoln.[51]’
The car sped on into the country, going down to Uncle Oscar’s place in Hampshire.[52]
‘Honour bright?’ said the nephew.
‘Honour bright, son!’ said the uncle.
‘Well, then, Daffodil.’
‘Daffodil! I doubt it, sonny. What about Mirza?’
‘I only know the winner,’ said the boy. ‘That’s Daffodil!’
‘Daffodil, eh?’ There was a pause. Daffodil was an obscure horse comparatively.
‘Uncle!’
‘Yes, son?’
‘You won’t let it go any further, will you? I promised Bassett’
‘Bassett be damned, old man! What’s he got to do with it?’
‘We’re partners! We’ve been partners from the first! Uncle, he lent me my first five shillings, which I lost. I promised him, honour bright, it was only between me and him: only you gave me that ten-shilling note I started winning with, so I thought you were lucky. You won’t let it go any further, will you?’
The boy gazed at his uncle from those big, hot, blue eyes, set rather close together. The uncle stirred and laughed uneasily.
‘Right you are, son! I’ll keep your tip private. Daffodil, eh! How much are you putting on him?’
‘All except twenty pounds,’ said the boy. ‘I keep that in reserve.’
The uncle thought it a good joke.
‘You keep twenty pounds in reserve, do you, you young romancer? What are you betting, then?’
‘I’m betting three hundred,’ said the boy gravely. ‘But it’s between you and me, Uncle Oscar! Honour bright?’
The uncle burst into a roar of laughter.
‘It’s between you and me all right, you young Nat Gould,’ he said, laughing. ‘But where’s your three hundred?’
‘Bassett keeps it for me. We’re partners.’
‘You are, are you! And what is Bassett putting on Daffodil?’
‘He won’t go quite as high as I do, I expect. Perhaps he’ll go a hundred and fifty.’
‘What, pennies?’ laughed the uncle.
‘Pounds,’ said the child, with a surprised look at his uncle. ‘Bassett keeps a bigger reserve than I do.’
