It took Bob Pretty two days to get his arf, but he kept very quiet about it, not wishing to make a fuss in the village for fear Mr. Sutton should get to hear of the club.  At last he told Henery Walker that ’e was going to Wickham to see ’is lawyer about it, and arter Smith the landlord ’ad read the paper to Henery and explained ’ow he’d very likely ’ave to pay more than the whole ten pounds then, ’e gave Bob his arf and said he never wanted to see ’im again as long as he lived.

Bob stood treat up at the Cauliflower that night, and said ’ow bad he’d been treated.  The tears stood in ’is eyes a’most, and at last ’e said that if ’e thought there was going to be any more fuss of that kind he’d wind up the club.

“It’s the best thing you can do,” ses Sam Jones; “I’m not going to belong to it any longer, so I give you notice.  If so be as I get shot I want the money for myself.”

“Me, too,” ses Peter Gubbins; “it ’ud fair break my ’art to give Bob Pretty five pounds.  I’d sooner give it to my wife.”

All the other chaps said the same thing, but Bob pointed out to them that they ’ad taken their sixpences on’y the night afore, and they must stay in for the week.  He said that was the law.  Some of ’em talked about giving ’im ’is sixpences back, but Bob said if they did they must pay up all the sixpences they had ’ad for three weeks.  The end of it was they said they’d stay in for that week and not a moment longer.

The next day Sam Jones and Peter Gubbins altered their minds.  Sam found a couple o’ shillings that his wife ’ad hidden in her Sunday bonnet, and Peter Gubbins opened ’is boy’s money-box to see ’ow much there was in it.  They came up to the Cauliflower to pay Bob their eighteen-pences, but he wasn’t there, and when they went to his ’ouse Mrs. Pretty said as ’ow he’d gone off to Wickham and wouldn’t be back till Saturday.  So they ’ad to spend the money on beer instead.

That was on Tuesday, and things went on all right till Friday, when Mr. Sutton ’ad another shoot.  The birds was getting scarce and the gentlemen that anxious to shoot them there was no ’olding them.  Once or twice the keepers spoke to ’em about carefulness, and said wot large families they’d got, but it wasn’t much good.  They went on blazing away, and just at the corner of the wood Sam Jones and Peter Gubbins was both hit; Sam in the leg and Peter in the arm.

The noise that was made was awful—­everybody shouting that they ’adn’t done it, and all speaking at once, and Mr. Sutton was dancing about a’most beside ’imself with rage.  Pore Sam and Peter was ’elped along by the others; Sam being carried and Peter led, and both of ’em with the idea of getting all they could out of it, making such ’orrible noises that Mr. Sutton couldn’t hear ’imself calling his friends names.

“There seems to be wounded men calling out all over the place,” he ses, in a temper.