Kabanata Kabanata 1 · Silver Blaze

. Silver Blaze

. For what purpose? For a dishonest one, obviously,

or why should he drug his own stable-boy? And yet I was at a loss

to know why. There have been cases before now where trainers have

made sure of great sums of money by laying against their own

horses, through agents, and then preventing them from winning by

fraud. Sometimes it is a pulling jockey. Sometimes it is some

surer and subtler means. What was it here? I hoped that the

contents of his pockets might help me to form a conclusion.

“And they did so. You cannot have forgotten the singular knife

which was found in the dead man’s hand, a knife which certainly

no sane man would choose for a weapon. It was, as Dr. Watson told

us, a form of knife which is used for the most delicate

operations known in surgery. And it was to be used for a delicate

operation that night. You must know, with your wide experience of

turf matters, Colonel Ross, that it is possible to make a slight

nick upon the tendons of a horse’s ham, and to do it

subcutaneously, so as to leave absolutely no trace. A horse so

treated would develop a slight lameness, which would be put down

to a strain in exercise or a touch of rheumatism, but never to

foul play.”

“Villain! Scoundrel!” cried the Colonel.

“We have here the explanation of why John Straker wished to take

the horse out on to the moor. So spirited a creature would have

certainly roused the soundest of sleepers when it felt the prick

of the knife. It was absolutely necessary to do it in the open

air.”

“I have been blind!” cried the Colonel. “Of course that was why

he needed the candle, and struck the match.”

“Undoubtedly. But in examining his belongings I was fortunate

enough to discover not only the method of the crime, but even its

motives. As a man of the world, Colonel, you know that men do not

carry other people’s bills about in their pockets. We have most

of us quite enough to do to settle our own. I at once concluded

that Straker was leading a double life, and keeping a second

establishment. The nature of the bill showed that there was a

lady in the case, and one who had expensive tastes. Liberal as

you are with your servants, one can hardly expect that they can

buy twenty-guinea walking dresses for their ladies. I questioned

Mrs. Straker as to the dress without her knowing it, and having

satisfied myself that it had never reached her, I made a note of

the milliner’s address, and felt that by calling there with

Straker’s photograph I could easily dispose of the mythical

Derbyshire.

“From that time on all was plain. Straker had led out the horse

to a hollow where his light would be invisible. Simpson in his

flight had dropped his cravat, and Straker had picked it up—with

some idea, perhaps, that he might use it in securing the horse’s

leg. Once in the hollow, he had got behind the horse and had

struck a light; but the creature frightened at the sudden glare,

and with the strange instinct of animals feeling that some

mischief was intended, had lashed out, and the steel shoe had

struck Straker full on the forehead. He had already, in spite of

the rain, taken off his overcoat in order to do his delicate

task, and so, as he fell, his knife gashed his thigh. Do I make

it clear?”

“Wonderful!” cried the Colonel. “Wonderful! You might have been

there!”

“My final shot was, I confess a very long one. It struck me that

so astute a man as Straker would not undertake this delicate

tendon-nicking without a little practice. What could he practice

on? My eyes fell upon the sheep, and I asked a question which,

rather to my surprise, showed that my surmise was correct.

“When I returned to London I called upon the milliner, who had

recognised Straker as an excellent customer of the name of

Derbyshire, who had a very dashing wife, with a strong partiality

for expensive dresses. I have no doubt that this woman had

plunged him over head and ears in debt, and so led him into this

miserable plot.”

“You have explained all but one thing,” cried the Colonel. “Where

was the horse?”

“Ah, it bolted, and was cared for by one of your neighbours. We

must have an amnesty in that direction, I think. This is Clapham

Junction, if I am not mistaken, and we shall be in Victoria in

less than ten minutes. If you care to smoke a cigar in our rooms,

Colonel, I shall be happy to give you any other details which

might interest you.”

II.