lone. I don't hedge a penny. I like the cut of him a great deal
better than I liked Ted Barton."

"Look at Barton's shoulders, Mr. Wilson."

"Lumpiness isn't always strength. Give me nerve and fire and breed.
That's what wins."

"Ay, sir, you have it theer--you have it theer!" said the fat, red-faced
publican, in a thick suety voice. "It's the same wi' poops. Get 'em
clean-bred an' fine, an' they'll yark the thick 'uns--yark 'em out o'
their skins."

"He's ten good pund on the light side," growled the horse-breaker.

"He's a welter weight, anyhow."

"A hundred and thirty."

"A hundred and fifty, if he's an ounce."

"Well, the Master doesn't scale much more than that."

"A hundred and seventy-five."

"That was when he was hog-fat and living high. Work the grease out of
him and I lay there's no great difference between them. Have you been
weighed lately, Mr. Montgomery?"

It was the first direct question which had been asked him. He had stood
in the midst of them like a horse at a fair, and he was just beginning
to wonder whether he was more angry or amused.

"I am just eleven stone," said he.

"I said that he was a welter weight."

"But suppose you was trained?" said the publican. "Wot then?"

"I am always in training."

"In a manner of speakin', no doubt, he _is_ always in trainin',"
remarked the horse-breaker. "But trainin' for everyday work ain't the
same as trainin' with a trainer; and I dare bet, with all respec' to
your opinion, Mr. Wilson, that there's half a stone of tallow on him at
this minute."

The young Cantab put his fingers on the assistant's upper arm, then with
his other hand on his wrist, he bent the forearm sharply, and felt the
biceps, as round and hard as a cricket-ball, spring up under his
fingers.

"Feel that!" said he.

The publican and horse-breaker felt it with an air of reverence. "Good
lad! He'll do yet!" cried Purvis.

"Gentlemen," said Montgomery, "I think that you will acknowledge that I
have boon very patient with you. I have listened to all that you have
to say about my personal appearance, and now I must really beg that you
will have the goodness to tell me what is the matter."

They all sat down in their serious, business-like way.

"That's easy done, Mr. Montgomery," said the fat-voiced publican.
"But before sayin' anything we had to wait and see whether, in a way of
speakin', there was any need for us to say anything at all. Mr. Wilson
think