ed down
that it was a "toff darncin' with Nugget's donah," and from various
parts of the room black-coated duplicates of Nugget hurried swiftly to
the scene.

The doorkeeper turned to Gordon. "You 'd best get your mate out o'
this," he said. "These are the Rocks Push, and they'll deal with him all
right."

"Deal with him, will they?" said Gordon, looking at the gesticulating
Nugget. "They'll bite off more than they can chew if they interfere with
him. This is just his form, a row like this. He's a bit of a champion in
a rough-and-tumble, I believe."

"Is he?" said the doorkeeper, sardonically. "Well, look 'ere, now, you
take it from me, if there's a row Nugget will spread him out as flat as
a newspaper. They've all been in the ring in their time, these coves.
There's Nugget, and Ginger, and Brummy--all red 'ot. You get him away!"

Meanwhile the Englishman's ire was gradually rising. He was past the
stage of considering whether it was worth while to have a fight over
a factory girl in a shilling dancing saloon, and the desire for battle
blazed up in his eyes. He turned and confronted Nugget.

"You go about your business," he said, dropping all the laboured
politeness out of his tones. "If she likes to dance--"

He got no further. A shrill whistle rang through the room; a voice
shouted, "Don't 'it 'im; 'ook 'im!" His arms were seized from behind and
pinioned to his sides. The lights were turned out. Somebody in front
hit him a terrific crack in the eye at the same moment that someone
else administered a violent kick from the rear. He was propelled by an
invisible force to the head of the stairs, and then--whizz! down he went
in one prodigious leap, clear from the top to the first landing.

Here, in pitch-darkness, he grappled one of his assailants. For a few
seconds they swayed and struggled, and then rolled down the rest of the
stairs, over and over each other, grappling and clawing, each trying
to tear the other's shirt off. When they rolled into the street, Carew
discovered that he had hold of Charlie Gordon.

They sat up and looked at each other. Then they made a simultaneous rush
for the stairs, but the street door was slammed in their faces. They
kicked it violently, but without result, except that a mob of faces
looked out of the first-floor window and hooted, and a bucket of
water was emptied over them. A crowd collected as if by magic, and the
spectacle of two gentlemen in evening dress trying to kick in