youths were
at work there. A tired dyspeptic, with a dusty patch of hair and rabbit
teeth, approached him when he entered.

'Yes,' he said, when Paul had explained his business; 'you can start in
at once, and if you're any good you're safe for a month or two. I hope
you're a steady worker,' he went on despondingly, as if he were quite
hopeless. 'They're not a dependable lot here--not a dependable lot at
all.'

Paul took his place amongst the depressed little crowd at two o'clock
that afternoon, and worked away among them until two o'clock on the
following Saturday. A little before that hour it became evident that
something was wrong. An excited little man ran into the dingy room, and
began a whispered conversation with the tired dyspeptic.

'But, my God!' said the latter, in a tearful voice; 'I _must_ have it
I've got my men to pay.'

At this everybody pricked an ear.

'It's all right, old man,' said the other. 'Here's the cheque, and it's
as good as the Bank of England. But I've only just this minute got it.
It's after one o'clock, and it's Saturday, and the Bank's closed. What
am I to do?

'I don't care what you do. Get somebody to cash it for you, I suppose.
I've got to have the money. Here's all the bills made out, and in ten
minutes the men'll be waiting.'

'Well,' said the man, I'll try. It ain't my fault, Johnny.'

He ran out as excitedly as he had entered, and the men stopped work by
common consent, and struggled into their coats.

'It's bad enough,' said one of them, 'to work for two-thirds money even
when you get it.'

Nobody else said anything. The dyspeptic foreman drew a case out of
a rack near the wall, and sat down upon it. The rest hung about
dispiritedly, and waited for what might transpire.

Two or three gathered round the imposing-surface.

'Have a jeff?' said one.

'If you like,' said another.

'Come along,' said a third, turning up the sleeves of his coat

Paul drew near, moved by curiosity.

One of the men picked up three em quadrats from a case near at hand.
An em quadrat is an elongated cube of type-metal, on which three of
the elongated surfaces are plain, whilst the fourth bears grooved marks
which indicate the fount of type to which it belongs. The cubes were
used as dice. The men started with a halfpenny pool, and the first
thrower cast three plain surfaces. He paid in three-halfpence. The
second man threw with equal effect, and put in three-pence. The third
man threw th