Rat Race - By Dick Francis Page 0,66

little while to organise, of course, after we’d decided to go ahead.’

‘Charles did the organising?’

‘My dear chap, of course.’

‘Did you take advice from any of your friends at Lloyd’s?’

‘No need, you know. Charles is an expert himself. He drew up all the papers. I just signed them.’

‘But you read them first?’

‘Oh yes,’ he said reassuringly, then smiled like a child, ‘Didn’t understand them much, of course.’

‘And you yourself guaranteed the money?’ Since the collapse of cut-price car insurance firms, I’d read somewhere, privately run insurance schemes had to show a minimum backing of fifty thousand pounds before the Board of Trade would give them permission to exist.

‘That’s right.’

‘Fifty thousand pounds?’

‘We thought a hundred thousand might be better. Gives the scheme better standing, more weight, don’t you see?’

‘Charles said so?’

‘He knows about such things.’

‘Yes.’

‘But of course I’ll never have to find that money. It’s only a guarantee of good faith, and to comply with the law. The premiums will cover the compensation and Charles’ salary and all the costs. Charles worked it all out. And I told him right at the beginning that I didn’t want any profit out of it, just for lending it my name. I really don’t need any profit. I told him just to add my share into the paying out fund, and he thought that was a most sensible suggestion. Our whole purpose, you see, is to do good.’

‘You’re a singularly kind, thoughtful and generous man,’ I said.

It made him uncomfortable. ‘My dear chap…’

‘And after tonight’s news, I think several widows in Newmarket will bless you.’

‘What news?’

I told him about the accident in which Kitch and Ambrose and the three stable lads had died. He was horrified.

‘Oh, the poor fellows. The poor fellows. One can only hope that you are right, and that they had joined our scheme.’

‘Will the premiums you have already collected be enough to cover many large claims all at once?’

He wasn’t troubled. ‘I expect so. Charles will have seen to all that. But even if they don’t, I will make up the difference. No one will suffer. That’s what guaranteeing means, do you see?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Kitch and Ambrose,’ he said. ‘The poor fellows.’

‘And Kenny Bayst is in hospital, badly hurt.’

‘Oh dear.’ His distress was genuine. He really cared.

‘I know that Kenny Bayst was insured with you. At least, he told me he was going to be. And after this I should think you would be flooded with more applications.’

‘I expect you’re right. You seem to understand things, just like Charles does.’

‘Did Charles have any plans for giving the scheme a quick boost to begin with?’

‘I don’t follow you, my dear chap.’

‘What happened to the Accident Fund,’ I asked casually, ‘After that bomb exploded in the aeroplane which had been carrying Colin Ross?’

He looked enthusiastic. ‘Do you know, a lot of people told me they would join. It made them think, they said. I asked Charles if they had really done anything about it, and he said yes, quite a few enquiries had come in. I said that as no one had been hurt, the bomb seemed to have done the Fund a lot of good, and Charles was surprised and said so it had.’

Charles had met the Duke through Rupert Tyderman. Rupert Tyderman had set off the bomb. If ever there was a stone cold certainty, it was that Charles Carthy-Todd was the least surprised on earth that cash had followed combustion. He had reckoned it would. He had reckoned right.

‘Charles sent out a pamphlet urging everyone to insure against bombs on the way home,’ I said.

The Duke smiled. ‘Yes, that’s right. I believe it was very effective. We thought, do you see, that as no one had been hurt, there would be no harm in it.’

‘And as it was Colin Ross who was on board, the bomb incident was extensively covered on television and in the newspapers… and had a greater impact on your Fund than had it been anyone else.’

The Duke’s forehead wrinkled. ‘I’m not sure I understand.’

‘Never mind, sir. I was just thinking aloud.’

‘Very easy habit to fall into. Do it myself, you know, all the time.’

Carthy-Todd and Tyderman’s second sabotage, I thought to myself, hadn’t been as good. Certainly by attacking Colin they’d achieved the same impact and national coverage, but I would have thought it was too obviously slanted at one person to have had much universal effect. Could be wrong, though…

‘This has been the most interesting chat,’ said the Duke, ‘But my dear fellow, the evening is