Crime at Tattenham Corner Read Online Free

questioned authoritatively.
    â€œOh, yes, sir, there is not no doubt possible.” Ellerby’s careful, rather precise grammar was forgotten now in his excitement and his own real grief. “I could tell without looking at his face,” he went on, “for there’s just the things I put out for him last night, little thinking. And her poor ladyship with a big party today going to the races!”
    â€œThe races – by Jove!” Stoddart looked at his watch and then at Harbord. “Of course that accounts for all the traffic on the road; it’s Derby Day!” 
    â€œYou are right, sir.”
    The valet put away his handkerchief and steadied his voice. “It seems but the other day that poor Sir John was telling us to put our shirts on Peep o’ Day – ‘Best colt Matt Harker ever trained,’ he says, ‘and a dead cert for the Derby; maybe the last we’ll have before the tote comes in,’ Sir John said, ‘so get the best you can beforehand.’ And we did, all of us, at Sir John’s own bucket shop.”
    Stoddart’s face altered indefinably. “I hope you didn’t build on the colt winning, Mr. Ellerby.”
    â€œThat I have, sir.” The man looked at him half fearfully. “All my own savings and my wife’s I have put on, and I borrowed my sister’s too. It is a tidy lot I stand to win when Peep o’ Day passes the winning-post! Though poor Sir John will never lead her in now.”
    â€œNor anyone else as the winner of the Derby,” Stoddart said gravely. Don’t you realize what that” – with a nod at the barn – “means to all of you who have put your money on Peep o’ Day?”
    Ellerby began to tremble. “No, sir, I don’t. But we got our money on right enough. Sir John, he said it was as safe as if it was in the bank.”
    â€œSo he may have thought, though in a gamble there is often a slip betwixt the cup and the lip,” Stoddart said dryly. “But don’t you know that an owner’s death renders void all his horses’ nominations and entries. Peep o’ Day is automatically scratched. If Sir John Burslem had died one minute before the race was run, and, not knowing, Peep o’ Day’s number had gone up, he would be disqualified. Today will be a grand day for the bookies. The favourite scratched at the last minute. You get your money back though, but we must wire at once for the sake of the poor devils who are putting on, on the course. Harker’s the trainer, you said.”
    â€œYes, sir,” Ellerby stammered, his face working painfully. “Matt Harker said that Peep o’ Day was the best three-year-old he had ever had in training. He carried all the stable money.”
    â€œWell, it is to be hoped Harker hedged a bit,” Stoddart said slowly. “For Peep o’ Day won’t run to-day. And I wonder, I wonder –”

CHAPTER 2
    Surely, surely, no hour had ever been so long! Sophie Burslem twisted herself round in bed once more. It was morning. Of course it was morning. The sun was streaming through her open window. She could hear the pleasant, familiar sounds of everyday life, but the sound for which she was waiting and watching did not come. At last she caught the echo of voices, distant at first, then nearer. One of the gardeners was talking on the terrace beneath the window.
    â€œAy! if Peep o’ Day brings it off and I ain’t no manner of doubt that he will, seeing Sir John himself he said to me, ‘You like a bit of a gamble sometimes, I know, Germain. Well, you will have the safest gamble of your life if you put your shirt on Peep o’ Day. Best colt I’ve ever had,’ Sir John said. Well, my missus and me we drawed our nest-egg out o’ the post office, an’ we put it on Peep o’ Day, months ago, and we got 100 to 8 then. I reckon we will be made folks tomorrow.”
    â€œI am