33 pages • 1 hour read
The Pale Horse
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Chapters 11-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary
Unsure of his next step, Mark calls Mrs. Oliver and asks for the name of a girl whom he met at the church festival. He finds out that the woman goes by the name Ginger, her full name being Katherine Corrigan (no relation to Jim). Meeting her at the White Cockatoo restaurant, Mark discovers her to be a much more willing listener than anyone before (especially Hermia), and she immediately questions him on what he plans to do, even offering to participate in the investigation.
They determine to attack the problem on two fronts, Ginger seeking out Poppy and Mark seeking out the mother of Thomasina Tuckerton, the dead girl he had seen in the café. Ginger meets with Poppy, discovering nothing of interest, and Mark makes an appointment to meet with Thomasina’s mother when she returns from a trip.
Chapter 12 Summary
Three days later Ginger calls Mark and informs him of a new lead that she wrangled out of Poppy, a man by the name of Bradley who lives in Birmingham. Mark arranges a meeting with the man, and they have a conversation laden with euphemisms as Mark attempts to ferret out whether the women of the Pale Horse are involved in foul play. Discovering that the Pale Horse operates in concert with Bradley and a system of betting on whether certain people will live or die, Mark goes away more sure than ever that the deaths are connected and that he needs to get to the bottom of the matter.
Chapter 13 Summary
After talking to Bradley, Mark tackles the interview with Mrs. Tuckerton by posing as a historian interested in the architecture of her house. He discovers that Mrs. Tuckerton is a widow and that Thomasina was her stepdaughter, who would have inherited the family fortune if not for her death. On his way out the door, Mark mentions the Pale Horse, and Mrs. Tuckerton reacts with extreme panic, “her face was suddenly white and afraid” (148). Mark realizes that Mrs. Tuckerton had probably done something to have her stepdaughter killed.
Chapter 14 Summary
Mark and Ginger make a plan for Mark to pose as a client at the Pale Horse to determine what is happening there and perhaps solve the crimes. Realizing that they cannot rely on the police for official help, they determine to set Mark up as a prospective client desirous of having his wife killed so he can marry a new woman. Ginger demands to pose as Mark’s wife despite Mark’s protests that she would be in danger. After they determine how to put their plan into action, they decide to make sure there are no loose ends by informing Lejeune.
Chapter 15 Summary
When Mark and Ginger meet with Lejeune to inform him of their plan, he asks if they know Venables, and they tell him that they do. Lejeune sums up the case thus far: there is an organization that arranges murders but that leaves no evidence or trace of its existence, and the victims seem to die of natural or accidental causes. Additionally, Thyrza and the other women at the Pale Horse appear to do nothing but traffic in parlor tricks. Lejeune says that if they were to take their case to the authorities “the whole thing would be laughed out of Court!” (164-65).
While they don’t know how the murders are committed, they are unwilling to rule anything out. As Mark concedes “the science of tomorrow is the supernatural of today” (166), Mark and Ginger tell Lejeune that they are going to enter a pact with Bradley with Ginger playing the part of the victim.
Chapters 11-15 Analysis
Chapters 11 through 15 set the plan into motion that leads to the climax of the plot: the discovery of what is happening at the Pale Horse and how it is connected to the untimely deaths of so many people. A new character arrives in the narrative, Ginger, a woman of bright demeanor and determined spirit who seems on equal footing with Mark’s tenacity and conviction.
Determined to assist Mark in his plan to solve the mystery of the deaths, Ginger proves to be fearless in offering to pose as Mark’s wife. A foil for the women with whom Mark has been involved up to this point, Ginger is a match for Mark in wits and daring. Jumping into action, Ginger quickly wrings information out of the unsuspecting Polly, discovering that the man they want is Bradley.
Upon arranging a meeting with Bradley, Mark discovers how the arrangements for the deaths are made. Bradley presents himself not as a hitman, but as a bookie, willing to place wagers on when an individual might die. The whole thing works, as Bradley puts it, based on Thyrza’s gift of foreknowledge: “Thyrza Grey does know—beforehand—when someone is going to die. It’s a gift. And she has it” (137). Based on this knowledge he can set odds on when someone will die, against which the client can bet. When the client “loses” the bet—that is, when the victim dies—the person who placed the bet must pay, thus completing the transaction for the assassination under the guise of a lost wager.
After the meeting with Bradley, Mark completes his theory by talking to Mrs. Tuckerton, a bitter and miserly old woman who was jealous of the inheritance going to her step-daughter. He finds her completely terrified even at the mention of the Pale Horse.
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