t in the party. They did
not seem to be quarrelling. Three or four sat round a table listening to
Lowrie with black looks, and toward them Sammy glanced as he came in.

"What's up in them fellys?" he asked of a friend.

"Summat's wrong at th' pit," was the answer. "I canna mak' out what
mysen. Summat about one o' th' mesters as they're out wi'. What'll tha
tak', owdlad?"

"A pint o' sixpenny." And then with another sidelong glance at the
debaters:

"They're an ill set, that lot, an' up to summat ill too, I'll warrant.
He's not the reet soart, that Lowrie."

Lowrie was a burly fellow with a surly, sometimes ferocious, expression.
Drink made a madman of him, and among his companions he ruled supreme
through sheer physical superiority. The man who quarrelled with him
might be sure of broken bones, if not of something worse. He leaned over
the table now, scowling as he spoke.

"I'll ha' no lads meddlin' an' settin' th' mesters agen _me_," Craddock
heard him say. "Them on yo' as loikes to tak' cheek mun tak' it, I'm too
owd a bird fur that soart o' feed. It sticks i' my crop. Look thee out
o' that theer window, Jock, and watch who passes. I'll punse that lad
into th' middle o' next week, as sure as he goes by."

"Well," commented one of his companions, "aw I've gotten to say is, as
tha'll be loike to ha' a punse on it, fur he's a strappin' youngster,
an' noan so easy feart."

"Da'st ta mean to say as I conna do it?" demanded Lowrie fiercely.

"Nay--nay, mon," was the pacific and rather hasty reply. "Nowt o' th'
soart. I on'y meant as it was na ivvery mon as could."

"Aye, to be sure!" said Sammy testily to his friend. "That's th' game is
it? Theer's a feight on hond. That's reet, my lads, lay in thy beer,
an' mak' dom'd fools o' thysens, an' tha'lt get a chance to sleep on th'
soft side o' a paving-stone i' th' lock-ups."

He had been a fighting man himself in his young days, and had prided
himself particularly upon "showing his muscle," in Riggan parlance, but
he had never been such a man as Lowrie. His comparatively gentlemanly
encounters with personal friends had always been fair and square, and
in many cases had laid the foundation for future toleration, even
amiability. He had never hesitated to "tak' a punse" at an offending
individual, but he had always been equally ready to shake hands when
all was over, and in some cases, when having temporarily closed a
companion's eyes in the heat of an argument, he h