"Five pounds!--crikey, if you ain't a pretty cove! Are you a-gammoning me?"
Bertie looked at the lad. A thought struck him. He put out his hand and took him by the shoulder.
"You've robbed me," he said.
"You leave me alone! who are you touching of? If you don't leave me alone, I'll make you smart."
"You try it on," said Bertie.
The other tried it on, and with such remarkable celerity, that before he had realized what had happened, Bertie Bailey lay down flat. The stranger showed such science that, in his present half comatose condition, Bailey went down like a log.
"You wouldn't have done that if I'd been all right; and I do believe you've robbed me."
"Believe away! I ain't, so there! I ain't so much as seen the colour of your money, and I don't know nothing at all about it. The first I see of you was about five o'clock. You was a-lying just where you are now, and I've come and had a look at you a dozen times since. Why, it must be ten o'clock, for the circus is out, and you ain't woke up only just this minute. How came you to be lying there?"
"I don't know. I've been robbed, and that's quite enough for me,--my head is aching fit to split."
"Haven't you got any money left?"