order to carry out his swindles. From a
telegram I have just received a good many fresh details came out this
morning when Copley was brought up at Bow Street. The magistrate has
refused to allow bail, but it will be two or three months before Copley
is convicted, and during the interval some of his creditors are sure to
make him bankrupt. They will be anxious to rescue some of the plunder
and there are probably several thousand pounds in the bank besides all
the stuff at Seton Manor and other places. It will take time to
investigate these things, and possibly the summer will be over before
the Bankruptcy officials ask me to pay this money to Copley's estate.
Long before that the Blenheim colt will have won the Derby."

May could not repress a smile.

"You are always sanguine," she said. "In fact, if you hadn't been so
sanguine, you would not be in your present position. I suppose nobody
knows of our trouble."

"Only Harry Fielden," Sir George said thankfully. "I suppose, we shall
have to regard him as one of the family, though what he is going to live
on and how he is going to keep you, goodness knows. I've got nothing."

A smile crossed May's face.

"We are all going to make fortunes out of the colt," she said. "If you
are so sanguine, you must not grudge a little bit of a similar spirit to
us. I know that Harry has backed the colt for all he is worth. It is
very dreadful and wrong and extravagant, but Harry tells me that this
will be the last time. How singular that the fortunes of two families
should depend upon a horse! Only think, too, that, but for the merest
accident, the Blenheim colt would not be in the Derby at all. That makes
me think our good fortune is to continue. I don't think Fate would play
us a low-down trick. It is impossible that the colt has been saved only
to speed us to ruin at the last. But I don't like to think about it. I
shall be in a fever of anxiety from now till May. But I'll try to be
calm. I must realize that this is my last bet."

Sir George was content to let it go at that. He was glad to have his
daughter back, glad to think that things were no worse. Fate, too, had
been kind to him, for he had preserved his name and reputation. He had
lost nothing; indeed, he stood to be in a better position than he had
ever yet occupied. For the first time for months he was looking forward
to his dinner with gusto.

CHAPTER XLII

FIRST PAST THE POST

Things turned out much as Sir