of having got clear of his
work in the thieves' rookeries, Mark went the next morning to Gibbons'
shop. His entry was hailed by a chorus of barking from dogs of all sorts
and sizes, from the bulldog down to the ratting terrier.

"Glad to see you, Mr. Thorndyke," Gibbons said, when he had silenced the
barking. "I saw Jack last week, and he told me that he should hand you
over to me pretty soon, for that you were getting beyond him altogether,
and he thought that if you stuck to it you would give me all my work to
do in another six months."

"I finished with him last night, Gibbons, and I shall be ready to come
for a lesson to you every morning, somewhere about this hour. I have
brought my bag with my togs."

"All right, sir, I am ready at once; the place is clear now behind. I
have just been making it tidy, for we had a little ratting last night,
one of my dogs against Sir James Collette's, fifty rats each; my dog
beat him by three quarters of a minute."

"You will never see me here at one of those businesses. I have no
objection to stand up to a man my own size and give and take until we
have had enough, but to see rats slaughtered when they have not a chance
of making a fight of it is altogether out of my line."

"Well, sir, I do not care about it myself; there are lots who do like
it, and are ready to wager their money on it, and as it helps to sell my
dogs, besides what I can win out of the event--it was a wager of twenty
guineas last night--it aint for me to set myself up against it."

Calling a boy to look after the shop, Gibbons went away into a wooden
building in the back yard; it was about twenty-five feet square, and
there were holes in the floor for the stakes, when a regular ring was
made. The floor was strewn with clean sawdust; a number of boxing gloves
hung by the wall.

"There is the dressing room," Gibbons said, pointing to a door at the
other end. When both were ready he looked Mark over. "Your muscles have
thickened out a good bit, sir, since I saw you strip. Before another
four years, if you keep on at it, you will be as big a man as I am. I
am about eight years too old, and you are four years too young. You will
improve every day, and I shan't. Now, sir, let us see what you can do.
Jack tells me that you are wonderfully quick on your feet; there is the
advantage you have of me. I am as strong as ever I was, I think, but I
find that I cannot get about as I used to."

He stood somewhat careles