Rodney Stone by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — Read

SO Boy Jim went down to the George, at Crawley, under the charge of Jim / Belcher and Champion Harrison, to train for his great fight with Crab / Wilson, of Gloucester, whilst every club and bar parlour of London rang / with the account of how he had appeared at a supper of Corinthians, and / beaten the formidable Joe Berks in four rounds. I remembered that / afternoon at Friar's Oak when Jim had told me that he would make his name / known, and his words had come true sooner than he could have expected it, / for, go where one might, one heard of nothing but the match between Sir / Lothian Hume and Sir Charles Tregellis, and the points of the two / probable combatants. The betting was still steadily in favour of Wilson, / for he had a number of bye-battles to set against this single victory of / Jim's, and it was thought by connoisseurs who had seen him spar that the / singular defensive tactics which had given him his nickname would prove / very puzzling to a raw antagonist. In height, strength, and reputation / for gameness there was very little to choose between them, but Wilson had / been the more severely tested.

It was but a few days before the battle that my father made his promised / visit to London. The seaman had no love of cities, and was happier / wandering over the Downs, and turning his glass upon every topsail which / showed above the horizon, than when finding his way among crowded / streets, where, as he complained, it was impossible to keep a course by / the sun, and hard enough by dead reckoning. Rumours of war were in the / air, however, and it was necessary that he should use his influence with / Lord Nelson if a vacancy were to be found either for himself or for me.