They Hanged My Saintly Billy (41 page)

She
asked:
'What
do
you
mean,
Sir?'

Cook
explained
that,
when
he
awoke,
he
had
been
in
an
agony of
terror—possibly
alarmed
by
the
noise
of
a
street
quarrel.

'Why
didn't
you
ring
the
bell
for
me?'
she
asked
winsomely.

'I
feared
you
would
all
be
asleep,
and
didn't
want
to
disturb you,'
Cook
replied
with
a
slight
frown.
'At
any
rate,
the
madness passed,
thank
Heaven,
and
I
managed
to
drop
off
again
without rousing
the
household.'

On
Monday,
November
19th,
Dr
Palmer
travelled
to
London, where
he
had
an
appointment
to
meet
Mr
Herring,
the
commission-agent.
Arriving
at
Beaufort
Buildings,
off
the
Strand,
soon after
one
o'clock,
the
Doctor
apologized
that
Cook
had
been unable
to
accompany
him.
'The
poor
fellow's
still
suffering
from his
Shrewsbury
sickness.
His
physician
has
prescribed
calomel,
and told
him
to
keep
indoors,
out
of
the
damp,'
he
said.
'
So
he's
entrusted
me
with
a
list
of
bets
to
be
settled
this
afternoon
at Tattersall's.
He
wants
you
to
handle
them
thi
s
time;
because (strictly
between
the
two
of
us)
he
now
regards
Fisher
as
somewhat
unreliable.
It
seems
that
there
should
have
been
more
money left
in
a
packet
of
bank-notes
which
he
entrusted
to
Fisher
as
soon as
the
puking
fit
began.'

When
Mr
Herring
accepted
the
commission,
Dr
Palmer
read out
a
list
of
the
various
sums
due
from
the
layers
against
Polestar, and
instructed
him
to
pay
Cook's
creditors
with
the
proceeds— though
these
were,
in
reality,
his
own
creditors:
Pratt
for
four hundred
and
fifty
pounds,
Padwick
for
three
hundred
and
fifty pounds,
etc.
He
had,
it
seems,
compiled
the
list
of
winnings
from Cook's
betting-book,
temporarily
abstracted
from
where
it
hung against
the
bedroom
mirror.
The
three
hundred
and
fifty
pounds paid
to
Pratt—not
in
settlement,
but
merely
on
account,
of larger
debts—would
stave
off
the
threatened
writ
against
old
Mrs Palmer.
Herring
duly
collected
the
money
(all
except
three
stakes, which
had
not
yet
come
in)
and
made
the
payments
without further
question,
afterwards
writing
to
tell
Cook
what
had
been done.
Why
Dr
Palmer
engaged
Herring
rather
than
Fisher
to
collect
Cook
s
debts
can
be
simply
explained.
Not
only
did
Cook owe
Fisher
two
hundred
pounds,
which
would
have
been
deducted
from
the
total,
but
Fisher
knew
that
Dr
Palmer
had
no right
to
any
of
Cook's
winnings.

Meanwhile,
Cook
felt
a
deal
better,
though
exceedingly
weak. He
got
up
once
more,
shaved,
washed
and
dressed
himself
as
if to
go
out.
Mrs
Bond,
the
housekeeper,
sent
him
some
arrowroot, which
he
managed
to
retain,
and
three
visitors
came
calling:
Will Saunders,
the
Hednesford
trainer,
and
the
two
brothers
Ashmole, both
jockeys.
When
they
left
early
in
the
afternoon,
he
went back
to
bed,
and
appeared
happily
relaxed.
At
about
8
p.m.,
Dr Bamford
sent
him
a
small
box
of
morphine
pills,
which
were placed
on
the
bedside
table.
Dr
Palmer
left
London
by
the
express train,
reaching
Stafford
at
8.45
p.m.,
took
a
fly
from
thence
to Rugeley—an
hour's
drive—and
on
arrival
briefly
visited
Cook before
obeying
an
angry
summons
from
old
Mrs
Palmer
at
The Yard.
That
night,
one
of
the
maids
noticed
the
betting-book
hanging
against
the
mirror.

At
a
quarter
to
twelve,
Lavinia
Barnes
aroused
Elizabedi
Mills, who
was
already
asleep,
saying
that
Cook
had
been
taken
ill again
and
rung
for
assistance.
Elizabeth
Mills
dressed
hurriedly and,
hearing
screams,
entered
Cook's
room.
She
found
him
seated upright
in
bed,
madly
threshing
the
coverlet
with
his
hands.
His pillow
lay
on
the
floor.
When
he
demanded
Dr
Palmer,
she
said that
Lavinia
Barnes
must
have
run
across
the
road
to
summon him,
and
indeed
the
Doctor
appeared
two
or
three
minutes
later. He
administered
the
pills
left
by
Dr
Bamford—these,
however, stuck
in
Cook's
th
roat—and
made
Elizabeth
Mills
give
him
a tablespoonful
of
toast-and-water
to
help
them
down.
Next,
he administered
a
dark,
thick,
heavy-looking
draught
which,
when Cook
vomited
it
up
again,
left
an
odour
like
opium
hanging about
the
room.
Dr
Palmer
asked
Lavinia
Barnes
to
hold
a candle
while
he
took
a
quill
from
his
bag
and
with
it
searched for
the
pills
in
Cook's
vomit.
They
did
not
appear
to
have
been returned.