Philip Van Doren Stern (ed) (118 page)

"Paul!"
she
cried.
"Whatever
are
you
doing?" "It's
Malabar!"
he
screamed,
in
a
powerful,
strange
voice.
"It
's
Malabar!"

His
eyes
blazed
at
her
for
one
strange
and
senseless
second,
as
he ceased
urging
his
wooden
horse.
Then
he
fell
with
a
crash
to
the ground,
and
she,
all
her
tormented
motherhood
flooding
upon
her, rushed
to
gather
him
up.

But
he
was
unconscious,
and
unconscious
he
remained,
with
some brain-fever.
He
talked
and
tossed,
and
his
mother
sat
stonily
by
his side.

"Malabar!
It's
Malabar!
Bassett,
Bassett,
I
know:
it's
Malabar!" So
the
child
cried,
trying
to
get
up
and
urge
the
rocking-horse
that gave
him
his
inspiration.

"What
does
he
mean
by
Malabar?"
asked
the
heart-frozen
mother. "I
don't
know,"
said
the
father,
stonily.

"What
does
he
mean
by
Malabar?"
she
asked
her
brother
Oscar. "It's
one
of
the
horses
running
for
the
Derby,"
was
the
answer.

And,
in
spite
of
himself,
Oscar
Cresswell
spoke
to
Bassett,
and
himself
put
a
thousand
on
Malabar:
at
fourteen
to
one.

The
third
day
of
the
illness
was
critical:
they
were
watching
for
a change.
The
boy,
with
his
rather
long,
curly
hair,
was
tossing
ceaselessly
on
the
pillow.
He
neither
slept
nor
regained
consciousness,
and his
eyes
were
like
blue
stones.
His
mother
sat,
feeling
her
heart
had gone,
turned
actually
into
a
stone.

In
the
evening,
Oscar
Cresswell
did
not
come,
but
Bassett
sent
a message,
saying
could
he
come
up
for
one
moment,
just
one
moment? Paul's
mother
was
very
angry
at
the
intrusion,
but
on
second
thoughts she
agreed.
The
boy
was
the
same.
Perhaps
Bassett
might
bring
him to
consciousness.

The
gardener,
a
shortish
fellow
with
a
little
brown
moustache
and sharp
little
brown
eyes,
tiptoed
into
the
room,
touched
his
imaginary cap
to
Paul's
mother,
and
stole
to
the
bedside,
staring
with
glittering, smallish
eyes
at
the
tossing,
dying
child.

"Master
Paul!"
he
whispered.
"Master
Paul!
Malabar
came
in
first all
right,
a
clean
win.
I
did
as
you
told
me.
You've
made
over
seventy thousand
pounds,
you
have;
you've
got
over
eighty
thousand.
Malabar came
in
all
right,
Master
Paul."

"Malabar!
Malabar!
Did
I
say
Malabar,
mother?
Did
I
say
Malabar? Do
you
think
I'm
lucky,
mother?
I
knew
Malabar,
didn't
I?
Over eighty
thousand
pounds!
I
call
that
lucky,
don't
you,
mother?
Over eighty
thousand
pounds!
I
knew,
didn't
I
know
I
knew?
Malabar came
in
all
right.
If
I
ride
my
horse
till
I'm
sure,
then
I
tell
you, Bassett,
you
can
go
as
high
as
you
like.
Did
you
go
for
all
you
were worth,
Bassett?"

"I
went
a
thousand
on
it,
Master
Paul."