Between wonder and amusement, Uncle Oscar was silent. He pursued the matter no further, but he determined to take his nephew with him to the Lincoln races.
‘Now, son,’ he said, ‘I’m putting twenty on Mirza, and I’ll put five for you on any horse you fancy. What’s your pick?’
‘Daffodil, uncle!’
‘No, not the fiver on Daffodil!’
‘I should if it was my own fiver,’ said the child.
‘Good! Good! Right you are! A fiver for me and a fiver for you on Daffodil.’
The child had never been to a race-meeting before, and his eyes were blue fire. He pursed his mouth tight, and watched. A Frenchman just in front had put his money on Lancelot. Wild with excitement, he flayed his arms up and down, yelling ‘Lancelot! Lancelot!’ in his French accent.
Daffodil came in first, Lancelot second, Mirza third. The child, flushed and with eyes blazing, was curiously serene. His uncle brought him five five-pound notes: four to one.
‘What am I to do with these?’ he cried, waving them before the boy’s eyes.
‘I suppose we’ll talk to Bassett,’ said the boy. ‘I expect I have fifteen hundred now: and twenty in reserve: and this twenty.’
His uncle studied him for some moments.
‘Look here, son!’ he said. ‘You’re not serious about Bassett and that fifteen hundred, are you?’
‘Yes, I am. But it’s between you and me, uncle! Honour bright!’
‘Honour bright all right, son! But I must talk to Bassett.’
‘If you’d like to be a partner, uncle, with Bassett and me, we could all be partners. Only you’d have to promise, honour bright, uncle, not to let it go beyond us three. Bassett and I are lucky, and you must be lucky, because it was your ten shillings I started winning with…’
Uncle Oscar took both Bassett and Paul into Richmond Park[53] for an afternoon, and there they talked.
‘It’s like this, you see, sir,’ Bassett said. ‘Master Paul would get me talking about racing events, spinning yarns, you know, sir. And he was always keen on knowing if I’d made or if I’d lost. It’s about a year since, now, that I put five shillings on Blush of Dawn for him: and we lost. Then the luck turned, with that ten shillings he had from you: that we put on Singhalese. And since that time, it’s been pretty steady, all things considering. What do you say, Master Paul?’
‘We’re all right when we’re sure,’ said Paul. ‘It’s when we’re not quite sure that we go down.’
‘Oh, but we’re careful then,’ said Bassett.
‘But when are you sure?’ smiled Uncle Oscar.
