Page:A Child of the Jago - Arthur Morrison.djvu/157

 fighting power notwithstanding. For was there not full a stone and a half between their weights? and had Billy not four or five inches the better in height and a commensurate advantage in reach? And Billy Leary's own hardness and fighting power were well proved enough.

It was past eleven o'clock. The weekly rents—for the week forthcoming—had been extracted, or partly extracted, or scuffled over. Old Poll Rann, who had made money in sixty-five years of stall-farming and iniquity, had made the rounds of the six houses she rented, to turn out the tenants of the night who were disposed to linger. Many had already stripped themselves to their rags at pitch and toss in Jago Court; and the game still went busily on in the crowded area and in overflow groups in Old Jago Street, and men found themselves deprived, not merely of the money for that day's food and that night's lodging, but even of the last few