hillside. Lines of empty carriages and traps curved down upon the
winding road, and a black crowd surged round the door of the ruined
factory. The seats, as a huge placard announced, were five shillings,
three shillings, and a shilling, with half-price for dogs. The takings,
deducting expenses, were to go to the winner, and it was already evident
that a larger stake than a hundred pounds was in question. A babel of
voices rose from the door. The workers wished to bring their dogs in
free. The men scuffled. The dogs barked. The crowd was a whirling,
eddying pool surging with a roar up to the narrow cleft which was its
only outlet.
The break, with its salmon-coloured streamers and four reeking horses,
stood empty before the door of the office; Wilson, Purvis, Fawcett, and
Montgomery passed in.
There was a large, bare room inside with square, clean patches upon the
grimy walls, where pictures and almanacs had once hung. Worn linoleum
covered the floor, but there was no furniture save some benches and a
deal table with a ewer and a basin upon it. Two of the corners were
curtained off. In the middle of the room was a weighing-chair. A hugely
fat man, with a salmon tie and a blue waist-coat with bird's-eye spots,
came bustling up to them. It was Armitage, the butcher and grazier, well
known for miles round as a warm man, and the most liberal patron of
sport in the Riding.
"Well, well," he grunted, in a thick, fussy, wheezy voice, "you have
come, then. Got your man? Got your man?"
"Here he is, fit and well. Mr. Montgomery, let me present you to Mr.
Armitage."
"Glad to meet you, sir. Happy to make your acquaintance. I make bold to
say, sir, that we of Croxley admire your courage, Mr. Montgomery, and
that our only hope is a fair fight and no favour and the best man win.
That's our sentiment at Croxley."
"And it is my sentiment also," said the assistant.
"Well, you can't say fairer than that, Mr. Montgomery. You've taken a
large contrac' in hand, but a large contrac' may be carried through,
sir, as any one that knows my dealings could testify. The Master is
ready to weigh in!"
"So am I."
"You must weigh in the buff."
Montgomery looked askance at the tall, red-headed woman who was
standing gazing out of the window.
"That's all right," said Wilson. "Get behind the curtain and put on your
fighting-kit."
He did so, and came out the picture of an athlete, in white, loose
drawers, canvas shoes, and the sash of a well-known cricket club round
his waist. He was trained to a hair, his skin gleaming like silk, and
every muscle rippling down his broad shoulders and along his beautiful
arms as he moved them. They bunched into ivory knobs, or slid into long,
sinuous curves, as he raised or lowered his hands.
"What thinkest thou o' that?" asked Ted Barton, his second, of the woman
in the window.
She glanced contemptuously at the young athlete.
"It's but a poor kindness thou dost him to put a thread-paper yoong
gentleman like yon against a mon as is a mon. Why, my Jock would
throttle him wi' one hond lashed behind him."
"Happen he may--happen not," said Barton. "I have but twa pund in the
world, but it's on him, every penny, and no hedgin'. But here's t'
Maister, and rarely fine he do look."
The prize-fighter had come out from his curtain, a squat, formidable
figure, monstrous in chest and arms, limping slightly on his distorted
leg. His skin had none of the freshness and clearness of Montgomery's,
but was dusky and mottled, with one huge mole amid the mat of tangled
black hair which thatched his mighty breast. His weight bore no relation
to his strength, for those huge shoulders and great arms, with brown,
sledge-hammer fists, would have fitted the heaviest man that ever threw
his cap into a ring. But his loins and legs were slight in proportion.
Montgomery, on the other hand, was as symmetrical as a Greek statue. It
would be an encounter between a man who was specially fitted for one
sport, and one who was equally capable of any. The two looked curiously
at each other: a bulldog, and a high-bred, clean-limbed terrier, each
full of spirit.
"How do you do?"
"How do?" The Master grinned again, and his three jagged front teeth
gleamed for an instant. The rest had been beaten out of him in twenty
years of battle. He spat upon the floor. "We have a rare fine day
for't."
"Capital," said Montgomery.
"That's the good feelin' I like," wheezed the fat butcher. "Good lads,
both of them!--prime lads!--hard meat an' good bone. There's no
ill-feelin'."
"If he downs me, Gawd bless him!" said the Master.
"An' if we down him, Gawd help him!" interrupted the woman.
"Haud thy tongue, wench!" said the Master, impatiently. "Who art thou to
put in thy word? Happen I might draw my hand across thy face."
The woman did not take the threat amiss.
"Wilt have enough for thy hand to do, Jock," said she. "Get quit o' this
gradely man afore thou turn on me."
The lovers' quarrel was interrupted by the entrance of a new comer, a
gentleman with a fur-collared overcoat and a very shiny top-hat--a
top-hat of a degree of glossiness which is seldom seen five miles from
Hyde Park. This hat he wore at the extreme back of his head, so that the
lower surface of the brim made a kind of frame for his high, bald
forehead, his keen eyes, his rugged and yet kindly face. He bustled in
with the quiet air of possession with which the ring-master enters the
circus.
"It's Mr. Stapleton, the referee from London," said Wilson.
"How do you do, Mr. Stapleton? I was introduced to you at the big fight
at the Corinthian Club, in Piccadilly."
"Ah, I dare say," said the other, shaking hands. "Fact is, I'm
introduced to so many that I can't undertake to carry their names.
Wilson, is it? Well, Mr. Wilson, glad to see you. Couldn't get a fly at
the station, and that's why I'm late."
"I'm sure, sir," said Armitage, "we should be proud that any one so well
known in the boxing world should come down to our little exhibition."
"Not at all. Not at all. Anything in the interests of boxin'. All ready?
Men weighed?"
"Weighing now, sir."
"Ah, just as well I should see it done. Seen you before, Craggs. Saw you
fight your second battle against Willox. You had beaten him once, but he
came back on you. What does the indicator say?--one hundred and
sixty-three pounds--two off for the kit--one hundred and sixty-one. Now,
my lad, you jump. My goodness, what colours are you wearing?"
"The Anonymi Cricket Club."
"What right have you to wear them? I belong to the club myself."
"So do I."
"You an amateur?"
"Yes, sir."
"And you are fighting for a money prize?"
"Yes."
"I suppose you know what you are doing? You realize that you're a
professional pug from this onwards, and that if ever you fight
again----"
"I'll never fight again."
"Happen you won't," said the woman, and the Master turned a terrible eye
upon her.
"Well, I suppose you know your own business best. Up you jump. One
hundred and fifty-one, minus two, one hundred and forty-nine--twelve
pounds difference, but youth and condition on the other scale. Well, the
sooner we get to work the better, for I wish to catch the seven o'clock
express at Hellifield. Twenty three-minute rounds, with one-minute
intervals, and Queensberry rules. Those are the conditions, are they
not?"
"Yes, sir."
"Very good, then, we may go across."
The two combatants had overcoats thrown over their shoulders, and the
whole party, backers, fighters, seconds, and the referee, filed out of
the room. A police inspector was waiting for them in the road. He had a
notebook in his hand--that terrible weapon which awes even the London
cabman.
"I must take your names, gentlemen, in case it should be necessary to
proceed for breach of peace."
"You don't mean to stop the fight?" cried Armitage, in a passion of
indignation. "I'm Mr. Armitage, of Croxley, and this is Mr. Wilson, and
we'll be responsible that all is fair and as it should be.'
"I'll take the names in case it should be necessary to proceed," said
the inspector, impassively.
"But you know me well."
"If you was a dook or even a judge it would be all the same," said the
inspector. "It's the law, and there's an end. I'll not take upon myself
to stop the fight, seeing that gloves are to be used, but I'll take the
names of all concerned. Silas Craggs, Robert Montgomery, Edward Barton,
James Stapleton, of London. Who seconds Silas Craggs?"
"I do," said the woman. "Yes, you can stare, but it's my job, and no one
else's. Anastasia's the name--four a's."
"Craggs?"
"Johnson. Anastasia Johnson. If you jug him, you can jug me."
"Who talked of juggin', ye fool?" growled the Master. "Coom on, Mr.
Armitage, for I'm fair sick o' this loiterin'."
The inspector fell in with the procession, and proceeded, as they walked
up the hill, to bargain in his official capacity for a front seat, where
he could safeguard the interests of the law, and in his private capacity
to lay out thirty shillings at seven to one with Mr. Armitage. Through
the door they passed, down a narrow lane walled with a dense bank of
humanity, up a wooden ladder to a platform, over a rope which was slung
waist-high from four corner-stakes, and then Montgomery realized that he
was in that ring in which his immediate destiny was to be worked out. On
the stake at one corner there hung a blue-and-white streamer. Barton led
him across, the overcoat dangling loosely from his shoulders, and he sat
down on a wooden stool. Barton and another man, both wearing white
sweaters, stood beside him. The so-called ring was a square, twenty feet
each way. At the opposite angle was the sinister figure of the Master,
with his red-headed woman and a rough-faced friend to look after him. At
each corner were metal basins, pitchers of water, and sponges.
During the hubbub and uproar of the entrance Montgomery was too
bewildered to take things in. But now there was a few minutes' delay,
for the referee had lingered behind, and so he looked quietly about him.
It was a sight to haunt him for a lifetime. Wooden seats had been built
in, sloping upwards to the tops of the walls. Above, instead of a
ceiling, a great flight of crows passed slowly across a square of grey
cloud. Right up to the top-most benches the folk were banked--broadcloth
in front, corduroys and fustian behind; faces turned everywhere upon
him. The grey reek of the pipes filled the building, and the air was
pungent with the acrid smell of cheap, strong tobacco. Everywhere among
the human faces were to be seen the heads of the dogs. They growled and
yapped from the back benches. In that dense mass of humanity one could
hardly pick out individuals, but Montgomery's eyes caught the brazen
gleam of the helmets held upon the knees of the ten yeomen of his
escort. At the very edge of the platform sat the reporters, five of
them: three locals, and two all the way from London. But where was the
all-important referee? There was no sign of him, unless he were in the
centre of that angry swirl of men near the door.
Mr. Stapleton had stopped to examine the gloves which were to be used,
and entered the building after the combatants. He had started to come
down that narrow lane with the human walls which led to the ring. But
already it had gone abroad that the Wilson champion was a gentleman, and
that another gentleman had been appointed as referee. A wave of
suspicion passed through the Croxley folk. They would have one of their
own people for a referee. They would not have a stranger. His path was
stopped as he made for the ring. Excited men flung themselves in front
of him; they waved their fists in his face and cursed him. A woman
howled vile names in his ear. Somebody struck at him with an umbrella.
"Go thou back to Lunnon. We want noan o' thee. Go thou back!" they
yelled.
Stapleton, with his shiny hat cocked backwards, and his large, bulging
forehead swelling from under it, looked round him from beneath his bushy
brows. He was in the centre of a savage and dangerous mob. Then he drew
his watch from his pocket and held it dial upwards in his palm.
"In three minutes," said he, "I will declare the fight off."
They raged round him. His cool face and that aggressive top-hat
irritated them. Grimy hands were raised. But it was difficult, somehow,
to strike a man who was so absolutely indifferent.
"In two minutes I declare the fight off."
They exploded into blasphemy. The breath of angry men smoked into his
placid face. A gnarled, grimy fist vibrated at the end of his nose. "We
tell thee we want noan o' thee. Get thou back where thou com'st from."
"In one minute I declare the fight off."
Then the calm persistence of the man conquered the swaying, mutable,
passionate crowd.
"Let him through, mon. Happen there'll be no fight after a'."
"Let him through."
"Bill, thou loomp, let him pass. Dost want the fight declared off?"
"Make room for the referee!--room for the Lunnon referee!"
And half pushed, half carried, he was swept up to the ring. There were
two chairs by the side of it, one for him and one for the timekeeper. He
sat down, his hands on his knees, his hat at a more wonderful angle than
ever, impassive but solemn, with the aspect of one who appreciates his
responsibilities.
Mr. Armitage, the portly butcher, made his way into the ring and held up
two fat hands, sparkling with rings, as a signal for silence.
"Gentlemen!" he yelled. And then in a crescendo shriek, "Gentlemen!"
"And ladies!" cried somebody, for indeed there was a fair sprinkling of
women among the crowd. "Speak up, owd man!" shouted another. "What price
pork chops?" cried somebody at the back. Everybody laughed, and the dogs
began to bark. Armitage waved his hands amidst the uproar as if he were
conducting an orchestra. At last the babel thinned into silence.
"Gentlemen," he yelled, "the match is between Silas Craggs, whom we call
the Master of Croxley, and Robert Montgomery, of the Wilson Coal-pits.
The match was to be under eleven-eight. When they were weighed just now
Craggs weighed eleven-seven, and Montgomery ten-nine. The conditions of
the contest are--the best of twenty three-minute rounds with two-ounce
gloves. Should the fight run to its full length it will, of course, be
decided upon points. Mr. Stapleton, the well-known London referee, has
kindly consented to see fair play. I wish to say that Mr. Wilson and I,
the chief backers of the two men, have every confidence in Mr.
Stapleton, and that we beg that you will accept his rulings without
dispute."
He then turned from one combatant to the other, with a wave of his
hand.
III
"Montgomery--Craggs!" said he.
A great hush fell over the huge assembly. Even the dogs stopped yapping;
one might have thought that the monstrous room was empty. The two men
had stood up, the small white gloves over their hands. They advanced
from their corners and shook hands: Montgomery, gravely, Craggs with a
smile. Then they fell into position. The crowd gave a long sigh--the
intake of a thousand excited breaths. The referee tilted his chair on to
its back legs, and looked moodily critical from the one to the other.
It was strength against activity--that was evident from the first. The
Master stood stolidly upon his K-leg. It gave him a tremendous pedestal;
one could hardly imagine his being knocked down. And he could pivot
round upon it with extraordinary quickness; but his advance or retreat
was ungainly. His frame, however, was so much larger and broader than
that of the student, and his brown, massive face looked so resolute and
menacing, that the hearts of the Wilson party sank within them. There
was one heart, however, which had not done so. It was that of Robert
Montgomery.
Any nervousness which he may have had completely passed away now that he
had his work before him. Here was something definite--this hard-faced,
deformed Hercules to beat, with a career as the price of beating him. He
glowed with the joy of action; it thrilled through his nerves. He faced
his man with little in-and-out steps, breaking to the left, breaking to
the right, feeling his way, while Craggs, with a dull, malignant eye,
pivoted slowly upon his weak leg, his left arm half extended, his right
sunk low across the mark. Montgomery led with his left, and then led
again, getting lightly home each time. He tried again, but the Master
had his counter ready, and Montgomery reeled back from a harder blow
than he had given. Anastasia, the woman, gave a shrill cry of
encouragement, and her man let fly his right. Montgomery ducked under
it, and in an instant the two were in each other's arms.
"Break away! Break away!" said the referee.
The Master struck upwards on the break, and shook Montgomery with the
blow. Then it was "time." It had been a spirited opening round. The
people buzzed into comment and applause. Montgomery was quite fresh, but
the hairy chest of the Master was rising and falling. The man passed a
sponge over his head, while Anastasia flapped the towel before him.
"Good lass! Good lass!" cried the crowd, and cheered her.
The men were up again, the Master grimly watchful, Montgomery as alert
as a kitten. The Master tried a sudden rush, squattering along with his
awkward gait, but coming faster than one would think. The student
slipped aside and avoided him. The Master stopped, grinned, and shook
his head. Then he motioned with his hand as an invitation to Montgomery
to come to him. The student did so and led with his left, but got a
swinging right counter in the ribs in exchange. The heavy blow staggered
him, and the Master came scrambling in to complete his advantage; but
Montgomery, with his greater activity, kept out of danger until the call
of "time." A tame round, and the advantage with the Master.
"T' Maister's too strong for him," said a smelter to his neighbour.
"Ay; but t'other's a likely lad. Happen we'll see some sport yet. He can
joomp rarely."
"But t' Maister can stop and hit rarely. Happen he'll mak' him joomp
when he gets his nief upon him."
They were up again, the water glistening upon their faces. Montgomery
led instantly and got his right home with a sounding smack upon the
Master's forehead. There was a shout from the colliers, and "Silence!
Order!" from the referee. Montgomery avoided the counter and scored with
his left. Fresh applause, and the referee upon his feet in indignation.
"No comments, gentlemen, if _you_ please, during the rounds."
"Just bide a bit!" growled the Master.
"Don't talk--fight!" said the referee, angrily.
Montgomery rubbed in the point by a flush hit upon the mouth, and the
Master shambled back to his corner like an angry bear, having had all
the worst of the round.
"Where's thot seven to one?" shouted Purvis, the publican. "I'll take
six to one!"
There were no answers.
"Five to one!" There were givers at that. Purvis booked them in a
tattered notebook.
Montgomery began to feel happy. He lay back with his legs outstretched,
his back against the corner-post, and one gloved hand upon each rope.
What a delicious minute it was between each round. If he could only keep
out of harm's way, he must surely wear this man out before the end of
twenty rounds. He was so slow that all his strength went for nothing.
"You're fightin' a winnin' fight--a winnin' fight," Ted Barton whispered
in his ear. "Go canny; tak' no chances; you have him proper."
But the Master was crafty. He had fought so many battles with his maimed
limb that he knew how to make the best of it. Warily and slowly he
manoeuvred round Montgomery, stepping forward and yet again forward
until he had imperceptibly backed him into his corner. The student
suddenly saw a flash of triumph upon the grim face, and a gleam in the
dull, malignant eyes. The Master was upon him. He sprang aside and was
on the ropes. The Master smashed in one of his terrible upper-cuts, and
Montgomery half broke it with his guard. The student sprang the other
way and was against the other converging rope. He was trapped in the
angle. The Master sent in another, with a hoggish grunt which spoke of
the energy behind it. Montgomery ducked, but got a jab from the left
upon the mark. He closed with his man. "Break away! Break away?" cried
the referee. Montgomery disengaged, and got a swinging blow on the ear
as he did so. It had been a damaging round for him, and the Croxley
people were shouting their delight.
"Gentlemen, I will _not_ have this noise!" Stapleton roared. "I have
been accustomed to preside at a well-conducted club, and not at a
bear-garden." This little man, with the tilted hat and the bulging
forehead, dominated the whole assembly. He was like a headmaster among
his boys. He glared round him, and nobody cared to meet his eye.
Anastasia had kissed the Master when he resumed his seat. "Good lass.
Do't again!" cried the laughing crowd, and the angry Master shook his
glove at her, as she flapped her towel in front of him. Montgomery was
weary and a little sore, but not depressed. He had learned something. He
would not again be tempted into danger.
For three rounds the honours were fairly equal. The student's hitting
was the quicker, the Master's the harder. Profiting by his lesson,
Montgomery kept himself in the open, and refused to be herded into a
corner. Sometimes the Master succeeded in rushing him to the side-ropes,
but the younger man slipped away, or closed and then disengaged. The
monotonous "Break away! Break away!" of the referee broke in upon the
quick, low patter of rubber-soled shoes, the dull thud of the blows, and
the sharp, hissing breath of two tired men.
The ninth round found both of them in fairly good condition.
Montgomery's head was still singing from the blow that he had in the
corner, and one of his thumbs pained him acutely and seemed to be
dislocated. The Master showed no sign of a touch, but his breathing was
the more laboured, and a long line of ticks upon the referee's paper
showed that the student had a good show of points. But one of this
iron-man's blows was worth three of his, and he knew that without the
gloves he could not have stood for three rounds against him. All the
amateur work that he had done was the merest tapping and flapping when
compared to those frightful blows, from arms toughened by the shovel and
the crowbar.
It was the tenth round, and the fight was half over. The betting now was
only three to one, for the Wilson champion had held his own much better
than had been expected. But those who knew the ringcraft as well as the
staying power of the old prize-fighter knew that the odds were still a
long way in his favour.
"Have a care of him!" whispered Barton, as he sent his man up to the
scratch. "Have a care! He'll play thee a trick, if he can."
But Montgomery saw, or imagined he saw, that his antagonist was tiring.
He looked jaded and listless, and his hands drooped a little from their
position. His own youth and condition were beginning to tell. He sprang
in and brought off a fine left-handed lead. The Master's return lacked
his usual fire. Again Montgomery led, and again he got home. Then he
tried his right upon the mark, and the Master guarded it downwards.
"Too low! Too low! A foul! A foul!" yelled a thousand voices.
The referee rolled his sardonic eyes slowly round. "Seems to me this
buildin' is chock-full of referees," said he.
The people laughed and applauded, but their favour was as immaterial to
him as their anger.
"No applause, please! This is not a theatre!" he yelled.
Montgomery was very pleased with himself. His adversary was evidently in
a bad way. He was piling on his points and establishing a lead. He might
as well make hay while the sun shone. The Master was looking all abroad.
Montgomery popped one upon his blue jowl and got away without a return.
And then the Master suddenly dropped both his hands and began rubbing
his thigh. Ah! that was it, was it? He had muscular cramp.
"Go in! Go in!" cried Teddy Barton.
Montgomery sprang wildly forward, and the next instant was lying half
senseless, with his neck nearly broken, in the middle of the ring.
The whole round had been a long conspiracy to tempt him within reach of
one of those terrible right-hand upper-cuts for which the Master was
famous. For this the listless, weary bearing, for this the cramp in the
thigh. When Montgomery had sprang in so hotly he had exposed himself to
such a blow as neither flesh nor blood could stand. Whizzing up from
below with a rigid arm, which put the Master's eleven stone into its
force, it struck him under the jaw: he whirled half round, and fell a
helpless and half-paralyzed mass. A vague groan and murmur,
inarticulate, too excited for words, rose from the great audience. With
open mouths and staring eyes they gazed at the twitching and quivering
figure.
"Stand back! Stand right back!" shrieked the referee, for the Master was
standing over his man ready to give him the _coup-de-grace_ as he rose.
"Stand back, Craggs, this instant!" Stapleton repeated.