“To be sure, Job, mine be worn thin; I’ll have measter’s breeches.”

“And what’s for me?” growled the man at my feet.

“There’s only the shirt and the boots left,” said Job, “for bein’ gemmen we can’t let him go bare.  You take the boots, Topper.”

And having thus apportioned my habiliments, they proceeded to divest me of boots and breeches, threatening to knock me on the head if I made any resistance.  In stripping me they came upon the wallet in which my precious guineas were stowed.  Job opened it in a twinkling, and I had the mortification of seeing all the money I possessed divided among these three ruffians.

When the exchange of clothing had been effected, I found myself attired in a dirty, greasy coat much too small for me, my arms protruding far beyond the sleeves, a pair of grimy patched leather smalls, that left an inch or two of bare flesh above my stockings, and boots that, rent and battered though they were, cramped my feet terribly.

“How we have overgrowed!” quoth Job with a leer.

The others laughed; then suddenly the man called Topper looked at Job with a frown and said: 

“Fair’s fair; that there silver crown—­I want a bit of that, Job.”

This set them squabbling, though they kept a wary eye on me all the time.  In the end they decided to settle the ownership of the coin by the arbitrament of chance.  Job first spun it; Bill called “heads” and lost.  At the second spin Topper called “tails,” and was about to pocket the crown when I made a suggestion.

“Gentlemen,” I said, in a conciliatory tone which I ought to have adopted before, “I value that crown piece more highly than all the guineas you have appropriated.  ’Tis clear you are sportsmen”—­I glanced at the hares that lay on the floor, the booty of their night’s depredations.  “I make you an offer which as sportsmen you will not refuse.  Let Mr. Topper and me fight it out, man to man, and the coin go to the winner.”

“Spoke like a man; what dost say, Topper?” said Job.

“Done!” says Topper, forthwith flinging off his coat, and rolling up his shirt sleeves.

It was clear that I was incurring a risk, for the muscles of his arms stood up like great globes; but if I could not match him in strength, I hoped at least to have some little advantage of him in science, thanks to the lessons of my good friend Captain Galsworthy.  I pulled off my coat, or rather Job’s, starting a seam as I did so, and then, the other two men standing between us and the door, Topper and I began our bout.

I could see that he, as well as his companions, expected to win an easy victory.  But when at the end of the first round, we stopped at Job’s call for a breather, neither of us had got home more than a few body blows, and Topper was patently chagrined, more especially as the others could not forbear twitting him.  He began the second round with an impetuosity that kept me wholly on the defensive, and pressed me so hard that I gave back and failed to counter a blow that sent me spinning on to the hay behind.  This afforded the others much satisfaction, and at the call of time, they encouraged Topper with a cry to give me a settler and have done with it.