one o'clock
`` Seems to me t ' red-headed wench may do him more harm than good , after all , '' remarked the publican . `` And now , Mr. Montgomery , sir , you 've done enough for this evenin ' , an ' a nine-hours ' sleep is the best trainin ' before a battle . Happen this time to-morrow night you 'll be safe back again with your 100 pound in your pocket . '' Work was struck at one o'clock at the coal-pits and the iron-works , and the fight was arranged for three . From the Croxley Furnaces , from Wilson 's Coal-pits , from the Heartsease Mine , from the Dodd Mills , from the Leverworth Smelters the workmen came trooping , each with his fox-terrier or his lurcher at his heels . Warped with labour and twisted by toil , bent double by week-long work in the cramped coal galleries or half-blinded with years spent in front of white-hot fluid metal , these men still gilded their harsh and hopeless lives by their devotion to sport . It was their one relief , the only thing which could distract their minds from sordid surroundings , and give them an interest beyond the blackened circle which enclosed them .