Page:A Child of the Jago - Arthur Morrison.djvu/271

 almost to the door of the club-room, but he could get no farther, and now he stood compressed, bounded on the face by Cocko Harnwell's coat-tails and on the back of the head by Fluffy Pike's moleskin waistcoat, with pearlies down the front and the artful dodge over the pockets. Pud Palmer—one of the reception committee—was singing. He accompanied his chorus by a step dance, and all the company stamped in sympathy:—

"She's a fighter, she's a biter, she's a swearer, she's a tearer. The gonophs down aar alley they calls 'er Rorty Sal;

But as I'm a pertikiler sort a' bloke, I calls 'er Rorty ,

I'm goin'—"

Crack!—!

Dicky clung to Cocko Harnwell's coat-tails lest he were trampled to death; and for a while he was flung about, crushed