Hard Pressed

Hard Pressed by Fred M. White (1896)

Fred M. White's "Hard Pressed" opens at a gala performance at the National Opera House, where May Haredale sits in the box of Raymond Copley, a South African millionaire whose wealth rests on claimed diamond discoveries in Rhodesia. May's father, Sir George Haredale, a poor baronet clinging to his family's racing tradition, has grown close to Copley, and it is understood that Copley wants May as his wife. During the interval Copley is warned by a man named Foster that Aaron Phillips, believed dead, has returned to London and could expose secrets from their South African past. Separated from her party in the crush outside the theatre, May is accosted by a drunken man and rescued by a stranger who turns out to be Harry Fielden, her childhood sweetheart, who squandered his inheritance and vanished two years earlier after ruining himself through extravagance and racing debts. May promises to help him find work, mentioning that Copley has a large racing stable near Haredale Park and that her father's stud includes a promising Blenheim colt, trained by Mallow with old groom Joe Raffle in charge, thought to be a possible Derby winner. Fielden returns to his old estate, Herons Dyke, now stripped and unrecognized by former acquaintances due to his changed appearance. Raffle reveals a secret: through an oversight, the Blenheim colt was never legally transferred from Fielden to Sir George, and its Derby nomination technically still belongs to Fielden. Fielden is stunned but reluctant to enrich himself at Sir George's expense. He visits Haredale Park under the alias "Mr. Field," dines with Sir George, and meets Copley there, recognizing him with hidden hatred as a blackguard from his South African days. Sir George hints that he hopes May will marry Copley, to whom he is deeply financially indebted. Copley later proposes to May and is refused; when she remains firm he reveals that he holds Sir George's debts and could evict the family from Haredale Park unless she reconsiders. May confronts her father, who admits Copley has lent him some thirty thousand pounds and hints marriage would solve everything. She declares she will never marry Copley. Meanwhile Fielden and May admit their love for each other on the Downs, though Fielden feels honor-bound not to interfere given his poverty and his position as Copley's newly hired stable manager, a post arranged by Sir George. Aaron Phillips, who survived being left for dead in South Africa by Copley and an accomplice, has returned to England seeking not police revenge but profit: blackmail and exposure of Copley's fraudulent wealth. He and Fielden reunite by chance during a secret early-morning trial of the Blenheim colt, which Copley and Foster secretly watch, mistakenly concluding the colt is beaten and unfit, prompting them to bet heavily against it in London. Raffle later reveals to Fielden that the trial was rigged with substitute horses to deceive spies, and that he suspects a stable boy is passing information to Copley. Phillips investigates the source of Copley's income, uncovering a sophisticated betting fraud: a private telephone line runs from an empty rented house called The Nook, overlooking the Mirst Park racecourse, to a suspicious office ("Jolly & Co.") beside the Post Club in Covent Garden, allowing confederates to relay race results before official announcement and place fraudulent late bets with unsuspecting bookmakers like Rickerby. Phillips recruits the impecunious, sponging Major Carden—whose daughter Alice is May's old school friend and coincidentally becomes a guest at Haredale Park—to gather information from the club. Phillips and Fielden break into The Nook at night, confirming the telephone rig on the roof overlooking the course, and narrowly avoid discovery when Copley and Foster arrive unexpectedly for supper, during which the two conspirators discuss their heavy losses from snowstorms disrupting their scheme and their plan to force Sir George to scratch the Blenheim colt from the Derby by financial pressure, regardless of May's wishes. A drunken accomplice, Chaffey, causes trouble by demanding money at Seton Manor and dropping a dangerous hint about "fruit baskets" in Covent Garden in front of Fielden, alarming Copley. Chaffey later spies on another secret trial of the ailing, stale-running Blenheim colt and sells the tip to Copley, who uses the news, combined with debt collectors from the financial house Absalom & Co. (secretly controlled by Copley), to pressure Sir George. A sheriff's officer is placed in possession at Haredale Park, and Sir George, panicked and ignorant of the true depth of Copley's scheming, awaits a meeting with Copley to negotiate terms while everything—the colt's fate, the estate, and May's future—hangs on Copley's next move.

By Fred M. White · First published 1896 · Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime · 42 chapters · 83,216 words

First lines

It was a gala night at the National Opera House, and the theatre was crammed from floor to roof, for Melba was sustaining a new part, and all London had gathered to listen. It was rarely indeed that so fashionable an audience assembled in February. The boxes were ablaze with diamonds. On the grand tier, however, there was one box which was not filled with gaily garbed women and which attracted attention by the fact that its sole occupants were a girl and two men. Though she was quietly dressed and wore no ornaments except flowers, nevertheless a good many women envied May Haredale; for the box belonged to Raymond Copley, who was quite the last thing in the way of South African millionaires. He was a youngish, smart-looking Englishman of the florid type, was becoming known as a sportsman and, according to all accounts, was fabulously rich.

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mystery · suspense · crime · detective · thriller · investigation · plot twist · suspenseful · fiction · drama · intrigue · character development

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