" I pound the cock," shouted Charles, flinging his hat
into the pit.
The Teller of the Law, a seedy vagabond with a red
nose, began to count in raucous accents. Twice he
counted twenty slowly, and

" Vill any vun take it? " he asked.
" Yes," said Mr. Vernon, and just as Mr. Vernon said
' Yes,' the brave Knowsley cock, the champion of many
famous fights, toppled over on his side, dead.
BLACKHART FARM WITH A COCKFIGHT 207

The Naval and Military Amateurs had won the Welch
Main, and Mr. Charles Lovely had lost two hundred
and ten guineas, not to mention ten pounds for so rashly
pounding the cock.
The young gentlemen went back to Curtain Wells
much pleased with the afternoon's entertainment, while
the riff-raff walked or drove in queer vehicles back to
their squalid homes, all save one unfortunate inmvidual,
unable to meet a debt often shillings incurred by backing
the brave Knowsley, who for all he was dying had
pursued his antagonist so confidently. He spent the
night in a basket close to the roof and was not set down
till the next morning by one of the labourers on Blackhart
Farm.
