gin, but oi ull. I'll fight the
best man among ye, be he which he will."

A chorus of wonder broke from the colliers.

"Then thou'st get to fight me," Tom Walker said. "I b'liev'," he went on
looking round, "there bean't no man here ull question that. Thou'st
wanted a leathering for soom time, Jack Simpson, wi' thy larning and thy
ways, and I'm not sorry to be the man to gi' it thee."

"No, no," Bill Haden said, and the men round for the most part echoed
his words. "'Taint fair for thee to take t' lad at his word. He be
roight. I hadn't ought to ha' matched Flora no more. She ha' been a good
bitch in her time, but she be past it, and I'll own up that thy pup ha'
beaten her, and pay thee the two pounds I lay on her, if ee'll let this
matter be."

"Noa," Tom Walker said, "the young 'un ha' challenged the best man here,
and I be a-goaing to lick him if he doant draw back."

"I shall not draw back," Jack said divesting himself of his coat,
waistcoat, and shirt. "Flora got licked a'cause she was too old, maybe
I'll be licked a'cause I be too young; but she made a good foight, and
so'll oi. No, dad, I won't ha' you to back me. Harry here shall do
that."

The ring was formed again. The lads stood on one side, the men on the
other. It was understood now that there was to be a fight, and no one
had another word to say.

"I'll lay a fi'-pound note to a shilling on the old un," a miner said.

"I'll take 'ee," Bill Haden answered. "It hain't a great risk to run,
and Jack is as game as Flora."

Several other bets were made at similar odds, the lads, although they
deemed the conflict hopeless, yet supporting their champion.

Tom Walker stood but little taller than Jack, who was about five feet
six, and would probably grow two inches more; but he was three stone
heavier, Jack being a pound or two only over ten while the pitman
reached thirteen. The latter was the acknowledged champion of the
Vaughan pits, as Jack was incontestably the leader among the lads. The
disproportion in weight and muscle was enormous; but Jack had not a
spare ounce of flesh on his bones, while the pitman was fleshy and out
of condition.

It is not necessary to give the details of the fight, which lasted over
an hour. In the earlier portion Jack was knocked down again and again,
and was several times barely able to come up to the call of time; but
his bull-dog strain, as he called it, gradually told, while intemperate
habits and want of condition