t which once found vent in fighting and conquest
now works on other lines. The Englishman must be engaged in a contest,
or he is unhappy, and, since he cannot now compete sword to sword with
his fellow-creatures, he fights purse to purse instead. All these things
I knew in a vague way, but Jerry has made my knowledge definite and
secure.

As for the man himself, I soon found that his "private means" were taken
in various ways from other people's pockets. During a chat, he said,
"You know you're not what you pretend to be. You hang about there, and
you bet, but you never bet enough to make anything at it. You must have
the coins, for I've seen you spend a quid in two hours in the
skittle-alley. But you don't seem to best anybody. What _is_ your game?
You may as well tell me."

"I amuse myself in my own way, and I don't care to let the school know
much about me."

"Well, my game's very simple. Only a juggins or a horse ever works, and
I don't intend to do any. It's just as easy to be idle as not. You take
the fellows in town that make their living after dark, and you always
see them having good times. There's some red-hot ones up--you know
where--in Piccadilly; they never get about till close on dinner time,
but they make up for lost time when they _are_ about. I should like to
work with you. If you were to come out a bit flash like me, why, with
your looks and your talk and that _educated_ kind of way you've got, you
might coin money."

"But you wouldn't care to work the Embankment and run the risk of the
cat, as those Piccadilly chaps do?"

"No fear. But you could do better than that. When you're boozed you're
not in it--you lose your head; but when you're right you make fellows
wonder what you are. Sink me! A flat would pal on to you in half an hour
if you coaxed him, as you can do it."

Jerry is an amusing philosopher, who could only have been developed in
the rottenness of a decadence. Fancy an able-bodied, attractive fellow
living with ease from day to day without doing a stroke of honest
labour. He keeps clear of the police; he gratifies every want, yet he
has the intellect of a flash potman and the manners of a valet. The
tribe swarm in this city, and I reckon that they will teach us something
when the overturn comes. They are strong and cunning predatory animals,
who will direct weak and stupid predatory animals, and when the entire
predatory tribe smash the flimsy bonds with which society holds them in
c