RACING ADVENTURERS. 261 



beginning. In his business most of his deals 

 proved successful, as he was possessed of the 

 happy knack of knowing what to do and the right 

 time to do it. Finding out what kind of fish 

 were likely to prove scarce, he used to buy up all 

 that came to hand, and then by dealing them out 

 to other buyers, secure a good profit without 

 much trouble. Twenty years ago there were 

 men in Billingsgate who had known Crockford. 

 One of the number was a porter who used to 

 carry fish to a shop he had taken close to Temple 

 Bar, and was paid with a liberal hand as being an 

 old friend, and always with forcible injunctions 

 not to spend the money in beer or gin. This 

 person had many stories to tell about his "old 

 pal," as he designated Crockford, both as to his 

 doings at "the gate" and after he became more 

 celebrated or, as may be said, more notorious. 

 The following is one of them : a Billingsgate 

 salesman with whom Crockford had often done 

 business fell into misfortune, having become 

 security for the sum of a thousand pounds on 

 behalf of a near relative of his wife. One 

 morning he found himself called on to pay, but 

 unfortunately, with several bad debts of magnitude 

 in his books, he had no alternative but to cry 

 peccavi ; to crown the poor man's distress, as one 

 of his children lay on her death-bed, his furniture 

 was seized, and, but for Crockford, would have 

 been sold. He it was who came to the rescue, 

 and brought comfort to the parents in their day 

 ot misfortune ; he purchased not only the furni- 

 ture, but the lease of the man's house as well, 

 paid the funeral expenses of the child also ; and 

 after doing all that, lent the salesman a couple of 



