3i8 " MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ! " 



Romano's at that time was like the most cheery 

 Bohemian Club, but it was spoiled for a while, later on, 

 when "The Squire " (Abington Baird) made it the head- 

 quarters of himself and the pugilistic fraternity. I 

 never minded this a bit for I was good friends with all 

 of them, and they never, even in their worst moods, 

 troubled me : but other visitors were subjected to un- 

 bearable insults from time to time. Thus, on one occasion, 

 when Pottinger Stephens was sitting smoking a cigarette 

 after his lunch, " The Squire " came lurching past him 

 and snatched the cigarette out of his mouth. Of course 

 he jumped up, as anyone would do, to forcibly resent such 

 an outrage, and then there gathered round him three or 

 four fighting men whom I could name. They said 

 nothing, but, like a wise man, he sat down again. That 

 afternoon Stephens had a Police Court summons for 

 assault served on " The Squire," and I wrote a real 

 scorching paragraph on the incident for our paper, which 

 went to press the same evening, but about 10.30 P.M. 

 I received a special message from Stephens, who knew 

 of my intention, saying he had withdrawn the summons, 

 and would I cut out anything I had written about the 

 matter. " The Squire " would pay almost anything 

 sooner than face a law court, and whatever solatium he 

 offered was no doubt a very big one. I was very sorry, 

 all the same, to cut out that paragraph It needed no 

 courage to have published it, for none of the gang would 

 ever have laid a hand on me of that I was quite sure. 

 Indeed the fighting men were good fellows enough, only 

 utterly spoiled for the time being by their rich patron, 

 who had but one redeeming merit, that he could ride 

 fairly well on the flat. He used to get all his wine and 

 cigars from Romano, which alone meant a very big trade, 

 but the fact that the place was haunted by such a gang 

 frightened the average reputable customer away from it. 



In those days, too, I saw a great deal of the Savage 

 Club. I was not a member, but my sub-editor, Tasker 

 (" Edgar Lee "), was, and I think no one has ever 



