The Matador of the Five Towns and Other Stories

ion. Our conversation was difficult, unnatural, and by gusts falsely familiar. He displayed to me his bachelor house, his etchings, a few specimens of modern rouge flambé ware made at Knype, h

talk. I, too, am a good talker-with another good talker. With a bad talker I am just a little worse than he is. The doctor said abruptly after a nerve-trying silence that he had forgotten a most important call at Hanbridge, and would I care to go wit

ps at sea, into Crown Square, the centre of Hanbridge, the metropolis of the Five Towns. And while the doctor paid his mysterious call I stared around me at the large shops and the banks and the gilded hotels. Down the radiating street-vistas I could make out the fa?ades of halls, theatres, chapels. Trams rumbled continually in and out of the square.

g. A few very seedy men (sharply contrasting with the fine delicacy of costly things behind plate-glass) stood doggedly here and there in the mud, immobilized by the g

that there quart o' be

for a further long period! Then the

A

. They just doggedly and indifferently stood, blown upon by all the nipping draughts of the square, and as it might be sinking deeper and deeper into its dejection. As f

nan a bit," said the doctor, cheerfully, when he came b

tire population. Its green sheet appeared to be a permanent waving feature of the main thoroughfares. The offices lay round a corner close by, and as we drew up in front of them a

Hoo-bl-

d quite unimposing, lacking in the spectacular effect; like nearly everything in the Five Towns, carelessly and scornfully ugly! The mean, swingin

!" called

ppeared

hanan u

d the head, a

t the summit were half flung back

r a large, littered table, scribbling on and arranging pieces of grey tissue

e doctor began to questi

in greeting, the doctor's being the more marked. Buchanan shook my hand with a certain courtliness, indicating that he was well accustomed to receive strangers. As an expert in small talk, however, he shone

gely the old man

s are you wait

re was somethi

your

as the boy slouched off and the o

ested politely to me. "I'll come with you. It's all I'm fi

be in bed," s

o bed as soon as I get a bit of time to myself. Well, will

-bell rang

that is, boss," said the

, he's playing.... Of course I'm sure! Good-bye." He turned to the old man: "I

d the old man,

uchanan glanced at me. "The odds

ve got me to thank for it," s

ou

She's nearing her confinement. False alarm. I

it, is it?" Buc

editors raise

t," said

again and was shamming," said Buchanan. "But I didn't beli

away, between the Knype Club and the Manchester Rovers. It was conveyed to me that the importance of this match was almost national,

hed out of the First League at the end of the season. That's a cert ... one

cted the eld

hat the cris

e captain, I su

e finest full-ba

of Knype and of Manchester Rovers in letters a foot high and the legend "League match at Knype" over all. It seemed to me that the heroic name of Jos Myatt, if truly he were the finest full-back in the League, if truly his presence or ab

Division they'll never pay another dividend! It'll be

in the tense excitement of gigantic issues! And here was this Scotch doctor, at whose word the great Myatt would have declined to play, never saying a syllable about

he pigeons, eh?

s?" I r

atches in our Football Edition," said Bu

boys dodged round us int

ts strong wings. The wings ceased to beat and the pigeon slanted downwards in a curve, its head lower than its wide tail. Then the little head gradually rose and the tail fell; the curve had changed, the pace slackened; the pigeon was calculating with all its brain; eyes, wings, tail and feet were being co-ordinated to the resolution of an intricate mechanical problem. The pinkish claws seemed to grope-and after an instant of hesitation the thing was done, the problem so

he cote. Fifty or sixty pigeons were cooing and strutting in it. There

re!" Buchan

Buchanan unrolled it and showed it to me. I read: "Midland Federation. Axe United, Mac

an hour, roughly. Not bad. First time we tried pigeons from as far off as Axe. Here, boy

chanan. "Ye'd no business out her

ous iron growths rose out of the floor and were met half-way by electric flowers that had their roots in the ceiling! In this jungle there was scarcely room for us to walk. Buchanan explained the linotypes to me. I watched, as though romantically dreaming, the flashing descent of letter after letter, a rain of letters into the belly of the machine; then, going round to the back, I watch

isn't it?" s

ad not the faculty by w

retched over his hemispherical paunch, strolled slowly along an alley, glancing at a

, offering the long paper, and then gravely looking at Buchanan,

tles: "Knype v. Manchester Rovers. Record Gate. Fifteen thousand spe

the slip back

I had seen come out of the sky, but its contents had been enlarged and amended by the sub-editorial pen. The man began tapping, tapping, a

nype match is ove

an. "The second half

go?" Stir

ng adventurous, "it's

hanan. "And he's probably never seen anything like it before. You m