Page:While the Billy Boils, 1913.djvu/46

 on me, and called him a mug straight, and walked round him, so to speak, and blowed, and told him never to pretend to me again that he was a battler.

Then, when I thought I'd licked him into form, I cooled down and soaped him up a bit; but I never thought that he had three climaxes end a crisis in store for me.

He took it all pretty cool; he let me have my fling, and gave me time to get breach; then he leaned languidly over on his right side, shoved his left hand down into his left trouser pocket, and brought up a boot-lace, a box of matches, and nine-and-six.

As soon as I got the focus of it I gasped:

'Where the deuce did you get that?'

'I had it all along,' he said, 'but I seen at the pub that you had the show to chew a lug, so I thought we'd save it―nine-and-sixpences ain't picked up every day.'

Then he leaned over on his left, went down into the other pocket, and came up with a piece of tobacco and half-a-sovereign. My eyes bulged out.

'Where the blazes did you get that from?' I yelled.

'That,' he said, 'was the half-quid you give me last night. Half-quids ain't to be thrown away these times; and, besides, I had a down on Stiffner, and meant to pay him out; I reckoned that if we wasn't sharp enough to take him down we hadn't any business to be supposed to be alive. Anyway I guessed we'd do it; and so we did―and got a bottle of whisky into the bargain.'

Then he 1eaned back, tired-like, against the log, and