be waiting for me at the back
gates there, and I'll see as you see Mr Enoch Peake."

"Are you going to the Dragon?"

"Am I going to the Dragon, young sir!" exclaimed Big James, in his
majestic voice.

VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER NINE.

THE TOWN.

James Yarlett was worthy of his nickname. He stood six feet four and a
half inches in height, and his girth was proportionate; he had enormous
hands and feet, large features, and a magnificent long dark brown beard;
owing to this beard his necktie was never seen. But the most
magnificent thing about him was his bass voice, acknowledged to be the
finest bass in the town, and one of the finest even in Hanbridge, where,
in his earlier prime, James had lived as a `news comp' on the
"Staffordshire Signal." He was now a `jobbing comp' in Bursley, because
Bursley was his native town and because he preferred jobbing. He made
the fourth and heaviest member of the celebrated Bursley Male Glee
Party, the other three being Arthur Smallrice, an old man with a
striking falsetto voice, Abraham Harracles, and Jos Rawnpike (pronounced
Rampick). These men were accustomed to fame, and Big James was the king
of them, though the mildest. They sang at dinners, free-and-easies,
concerts, and Martinmas tea-meetings. They sang for the glory, and when
there was no demand for their services, they sang to themselves, for the
sake of singing. Each of them was a star in some church or chapel
choir. And except Arthur Smallrice, they all shared a certain
elasticity of religious opinion. Big James, for example, had varied in
ten years from Wesleyan, through Old Church, to Roman Catholic up at
Bleakridge. It all depended on niceties in the treatment accorded to
him, and on the choice of anthems. Moreover, he liked a change.

He was what his superiors called `a very superior man.' Owing to the
more careful enunciation required in singing, he had lost a great deal
of the Five Towns accent, and one cannot be a compositor for a quarter
of a century without insensibly acquiring an education and a store of
knowledge far excelling the ordinary. His manner was gentle, and
perhaps somewhat pompous, as is common with very big men; but you could
never be sure whether an extremely subdued humour did not underlie his
pomposity. He was a bachelor, aged forty-five, and lived quietly with a
married sister at the bottom of Woodisun Bank, near the National
Schools. The wonder was that, with all his advantages,