the most dreadful. I used
sometimes to think he _was_ the devil. It wasn't long-headed or cunning
he was, but he knew your thoughts before you half knew them yourself. He
knew what _every_ one was thinking of. He made up his mind at a glance,
and struck like a thunderbolt. As for pity or fear, he did not know what
they were, and his cunning was so deep and sure there was no catching
him.

'He came down to the Pied Horse Inn, where I was a drawer, at Newmarket,
twice.'

Mervyn looked in his face, quickly, with a ghastly kind of a start.

'Ay, Sir, av coorse you know it; you read the trial; av coorse you did.
Well, he came down there twice. 'Twas a good old house, Sir, lots of
room, and a well-accustomed inn. An' I think there was but two bad men
among all the servants of the house--myself and Glascock. He was an
under hostler, and a bad boy. He chose us two out of the whole lot, with
a look. He never made a mistake. He knew us some way like a crow knows
carrion, and he used us cleverly.'

And Irons cursed him.

'He's a hard master, like his own,' said Irons; 'his wages come to
nothing, and his services is hell itself. He could sing, and talk, and
drink, and keep things stirring, and the gentlemen liked him; and he
was, 'twas said, a wonderful fine player at whist, and piquet, and
ombre, and all sorts of card-playing. So you see he could afford to play
fair. The first time he came down, he fought three duels about a tipsy
quarrel over a pool of Pope Joan. There was no slur on his credit,
though; 'twas just a bit of temper. He wounded all three; two but
trifling; but one of them--Chapley, or Capley, I think, was his
name--through the lungs, and he died, I heard, abroad. I saw him
killed--'twasn't the last; it was done while you'd count ten. Mr. Archer
came up with a sort of a sneer, pale and angry, and 'twas a clash of the
small swords--one, two, three, and a spring like a tiger--and all over.
He was frightful strong; ten times as strong as he looked--all a
deception.'

'Well, Sir, there was a Jew came down, offering wagers, not, you see, to
gentlemen, Sir, but to poor fellows. And Mr. Archer put me and Glascock
up to bite him, as he said; and he told us to back Strawberry, and we
did. We had that opinion of his judgment and his knowledge--you see, we
thought he had ways of finding out these things--that we had no doubt of
winning, so we made a wager of twelve pounds. But we had no money--not a
crown between us--an