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"The fact was, of course, appreciated at King's Pyland, where the Colonel's training-stable is situated. Every precaution was taken to guard the favorite. The trainer, John Straker, is a retired jockey who rode in Colonel Ross's colors before he became too heavy for the weighing-chair.
Is it a fact that at the weights Bayard could give the other a hundred yards in five furlongs, and that the stable have put their money on him? "'So, you're one of those damned touts! cried the lad. 'I'll show you how we serve them in King's Pyland. He sprang up and rushed across the stable to unloose the dog.
His age, she thought, would be rather over thirty than under it. "'Can you tell me where I am? he asked. 'I had almost made up my mind to sleep on the moor, when I saw the light of your lantern. "'You are close to the King's Pyland training-stables, said she. "'Oh, indeed! What a stroke of luck! he cried. 'I understand that a stable-boy sleeps there alone every night.
"I have already said that he must have gone to King's Pyland or to Mapleton. He is not at King's Pyland. Therefore he is at Mapleton. Let us take that as a working hypothesis and see what it leads us to. This part of the moor, as the Inspector remarked, is very hard and dry.
"We may leave the question of who killed John Straker for the instant, and confine ourselves to finding out what has become of the horse. Now, supposing that he broke away during or after the tragedy, where could he have gone to? The horse is a very gregarious creature. If left to himself his instincts would have been either to return to King's Pyland or go over to Mapleton.
"I am afraid, Watson, that I shall have to go," said Holmes, as we sat down together to our breakfast one morning. "Go! Where to?" "To Dartmoor; to King's Pyland." I was not surprised. Indeed, my only wonder was that he had not already been mixed up in this extraordinary case, which was the one topic of conversation through the length and breadth of England.
He turned upon his heel, disregarding the trembling hand which the other held out to him, and we set off for King's Pyland. "A more perfect compound of the bully, coward, and sneak than Master Silas Brown I have seldom met with," remarked Holmes as we trudged along together. "He has the horse, then?"
Then I described how his first impulse had been to lead him back to King's Pyland, and how the devil had shown him how he could hide the horse until the race was over, and how he had led it back and concealed it at Mapleton. When I told him every detail he gave it up and thought only of saving his own skin." "But his stables had been searched?" "Oh, an old horse-faker like him has many a dodge."
It was Holmes who saw them first, and he stood pointing with a look of triumph upon his face. A man's track was visible beside the horse's. "The horse was alone before," I cried. "Quite so. It was alone before. Hullo, what is this?" The double track turned sharp off and took the direction of King's Pyland. Holmes whistled, and we both followed along after it.
On being arrested he volunteered that statement that he had come down to Dartmoor in the hope of getting some information about the King's Pyland horses, and also about Desborough, the second favorite, which was in charge of Silas Brown at the Mapleton stables.
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