Page:A Child of the Jago - Arthur Morrison.djvu/165

 crowd. Still half a dozen couples, remote by the walls, tossed and tossed faster than ever, moving this way and that as the crowd pressed.

Now there was an irregular space of bare cobble stones and house refuse, five or six yards across, in the middle of Jago Court, and all round it the shouting crowd was packed tight, those at the back standing on sills and hanging to fences. Every window was a clump of heads, and women yelled savagely or cheerily down and across. The two groups were merged in the press at each side of the square, Billy Leary and Josh Perrott in front of each, with his seconds.

"Naa, then, any more 'fore they begin?" bawled a High Mobsman, turning about among his fellows. "Three to one on the big 'un—three to one! 'Ere, I'll give four—four to one on Leary! Fourer one! Fourer one!"

But they shook their heads; they would