bs, of which there were three.

The time passed in this manner until seven o'clock, the hour at which
it had been arranged to start on the return journey; but about a
quarter of an hour before they set out an unpleasant incident occurred.

During the time that they were playing cricket a party of glee singers,
consisting of four young girls and five men, three of whom were young
fellows, the other two being rather elderly, possibly the fathers of
some of the younger members of the party, came into the field and sang
several part songs for their entertainment. Towards the close of the
game most of the men had assembled in this field, and during a pause in
the singing the musicians sent one of their number, a shy girl about
eighteen years of age--who seemed as if she would rather that someone
else had the task--amongst the crowd to make a collection. The girl
was very nervous and blushed as she murmured her request, and held out
a straw hat that evidently belonged to one of the male members of the
glee party. A few of the men gave pennies, some refused or pretended
not to see either the girl or the hat, others offered to give her some
money for a kiss, but what caused the trouble was that two or three of
those who had been drinking more than was good for them dropped the
still burning ends of their cigars, all wet with saliva as they were,
into the hat and Dick Wantley spit into it.

The girl hastily returned to her companions, and as she went some of
the men who had witnessed the behaviour of those who had insulted her,
advised them to make themselves scarce, as they stood a good chance of
getting a thrashing from the girl's friends. They said it would serve
them dam' well right if they did get a hammering.

Partly sobered by fear, the three culprits sneaked off and hid
themselves, pale and trembling with terror, under the box seats of the
three brakes. They had scarcely left when the men of the glee party
came running up, furiously demanding to see those who had insulted the
girl. As they could get no satisfactory answer, one of their number
ran back and presently returned, bringing the girl with him, the other
young women following a little way behind.

She said she could not see the men they were looking for, so they went
down to the public house to see if they could find them there, some of
the Rushton's men accompanying them and protesting their indignation.

The time passed quickly enough and by half