"Go on! Be a man!"
Next moment he had left my side and was standing in the centre of the ring, addressing the crowd. He was quite cool and self-possessed, but I saw his fingers curling and uncurling.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" he shouted.
"Git out of the ring, Elbert!" suggested a voice, not unkindly.
But The Freak continued:--
"I know we all sympathise with the plucky attempt this lady is making to entertain us under very difficult circumstances."
The crowd, suspicious of a hoax of some kind, surveyed him dumbly.
"I am sure," Dicky went on, "you will agree with me that with such a bad cough our entertainer has no right to be working so hard this afternoon; and I therefore propose, with your kind permission, in order that she may have a rest and get her voice back, to sing you one or two songs myself. I can't sing for toffee; but I will do my best, and I know that you, being sportsmen all, will assist me by singing the choruses!"
He took off his hat, bowed genially, and turned to the harpist. There was a buzz of appreciation and anticipation among the crowd. Evidently Dicky had touched the right note when he appealed to them as sportsmen.
"Can you vamp a few chords, do you think?" I heard him say to the accompanist.