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--and we must stake gold with the host of the "Plume of
Feathers;" and the long and the short of it was, I never could tell how
he put it into our heads, to pledge some of the silver spoons and a gold
chain of the master's, intending to take them out when we won the money.
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