Have His Carcase

‘It’s a new shoe and it hasn’t been here very long. Perhaps a week, perhaps a little more. Belongs to a nice little cob, about fourteen hands. Pretty little animal, fairly well-bred, rather given to kicking her shoes off, pecks a little with the off-fore’

‘Holmes, this is wonderful! How do you do it?’

‘Perfectly simple, my; dear Watson. The shoe hasn’t been worn thin by the ‘ammer, ‘ammer, ‘ammer on the ’ard ’igh road, therefore it’s reasonably new. It’s a little rusty from lying in the, water, but hardly at all rubbed by sand and stones, and not at all corroded, which suggests that it hasn’t been here long. The size of the shoe gives the size of the nag, and the shape suggests a nice little round, well-bred hoof. Though newish, the shoe isn’t fire-new, and it is worn down a little on the inner front edge, which shows that the wearer was disposed to peck a little; while the way the nails are placed: and clinched indicates that the smith wanted to make the shoe; extra secure — which is why I said that a lost shoe was a fairly common accident with this particular gee. Still, we needn’t blame him or her too much. With all these stones about, a slight trip or knock might easily wrench a shoe away.’

‘Him or her. Can’t you go on and tell the sex and colour while’ you’re about it?’

‘I am’ afraid even I have my limitations, my dear Watson.’

‘Do you think the shoe was lying where it fell? Or would the sea have moved it much? I found it just here, close by the water’s edge, buried deep in sand.’

‘Well, it wouldn’t float, but the tide might drag it a bit one way or ‘the other, and each successive tide would tend to bury it farther. It’s very lucky you found it at all. But we can’t tell exactly at what point the horse passed along, if you mean that. The shoe wouldn’t just drop off. It would be thrown and would spin away on one side or other, according to the speed and direction and all that sort of thing

‘So it would. Well, that’s quite — pretty little piece of deduction…. Peter! Were you looking-for a horse-shoe?’

‘No; I was expecting the horse, but the shoe is a piece of pure, gorgeous luck.’

‘And observation. I found it.’

‘You did. And I could kiss you for it. You need not shrink and tremble. I am not going to do it. When — I kiss you, it will be an important event — one of those things which stand out among their surroundings like the first time you tasted li-chee. It will not be an unimportant side show attached to a detective investigation.’

‘I think you are a little intoxicated by the excitement of the discovery,’ said Harriet,’ coldly. ‘You say you came here looking for a horse?’

‘Naturally. Didn’t you?’

‘No I never thought about it.’

‘You miserable little cockney, — no! You never thought of a horse except as something that holds up the traffic. Your knowledge of horses is comprised in the rhyme which says, “I know two things about the horse and one of them is rather coarse”. Didn’t it ever occur to you that a horse is made to R,U,N, run, and cover a given distance in a given time. Did you never even have a bob on the Derby?? Wretched girl, wait till we are married. You, shall fall off a horse every day till you learn to sit on it.’

Harriet was silent. She suddenly saw Wimsey in a new light. She knew him to be intelligent, clean, courteous, wealthy, well-read, amusing and enamoured, but he had not so far produced in her that crushing sense of utter inferiority which leads to prostration and hero-worship. But she now realised that there was, after all, something godlike about him. He could control a horse. She had a fleeting vision of him, very sleek, very smart, in a top-hat and pink coat and gleaming white breeches, loftily perched — on an immense and fiery animal which pranced and jiggled about without even disturbing the lofty nonchalance of his demeanour. Her imagination, making a terrific effort, promptly clothed her in a riding-habit of perfect cut, placed her on an animal still larger and fierier and set her at his side, amid the respectful admiration of the assembled nobility and gentry. Then she laughed at this snobbish picture.

‘I could do the falling-off part all right. Hadn’t we better, be getting on?’

‘H’m. Yes. I think we’ll do the rest by horse-power. I can’t see the coast-road from here, but we shall probably find the faithful Bunter in attendance not very far off. We can’t hope to find anything more along here. Two horseshoes would be a work of supererogation.’

Harriet heartily welcomed this decision.

‘We needn’t crawl up the cliff,’ Wimsey went on. ‘We’ll turn up and get, to the road by the lane. We’ll chuck the Bible and the boot — I don’t think they’ll get us anywhere.’ ‘Where are we going?’

‘To Darley, to find the horse. I fancy we shall find that he belongs to Mr Newcombe, who had occasion to complain of gaps in his hedges. We shall see”