Barry Pain

“ It was Crall who had, through the medium of that cursed shilling, alienated the love of Miss Hammond, caused him to be run down by a bicycle, and put him in a position that had been misunderstood and forfeited him the respect of the establishment where he lived. Crall should suffer for it. The tobacconist did not open on Sunday—his aunts objected to it—but on Monday there would be a chance to return him his shilling privily; in all probability he would not recognize it; and the unluckiness of that shilling would descend on Crall once more. ”

“ As he was handling it, a shilling rolled out of the ticket pocket, and suddenly Mr. Ferdinand Hammer remembered.
The convert is ever the most enthusiastic believer, and if Mr. Hammer had been slow to recognize the mystical properties of the unlucky shilling he believed in them now with a faith that would have made Crall's superstition seem almost like rationalism. At the same time he became very angry with Crall, the cause of all this misery. He opened the window to hurl the shilling forth, then checked himself, and not from motives of economy. ”

“ He was an energetic and conversational little man, rather proud that the cut-price people had not touched him; he had a strong personal connection—customers with whom he was on friendly terms, customers to whom the social charm of Mr. William Crall meant more than the saving of a farthing on the ounce. In spite of the fact that he frequently made a bet, there were many vices that Crall did not possess. There are, I believe, many men who put an occasional half-crown on a horse that yet would think twice about murdering their mothers ”

“ If the boy could not come at the right time in the morning he need not come at all. He would be no loss. Mr. Crall was assured that he could get six boys in ten minutes by putting his head out of the window and whistling for them, at half the wages that he was now paying, and worth double the money. The boy had all Sunday with nothing to do, and there was no call for him to go on doing it on Monday morning when he ought to be at work. If he couldn't move those shutters just a very little bit faster he might get a clip on the side of the head that would hurry him to some purpose. ”

“ But all the same, I felt the bad luck all through that shilling and all over it. I laughed at myself for the idea, but I couldn't get rid of it; so I put the coin in my waistcoat pocket instead of the till, and decided to keep it twenty-four hours and see what happened. That's a fair test, Misterrammer, ain't it? Well, since then one of my best regular customers has died, a man that owed me two ten has gone bankrupt, a horse I had backed ran absolute last, and that damned boy has broken another gas-globe. You can't get away from that, can you? ”

“ The first cyclist, who had now arisen from the road, came forward and also took a hand. He was bleeding from the nose, and he was also sarcastic—a combination that some less gifted men might have found difficult. ”

“ THE UNLUCKY SHILLING
By Barry Pain
IF you are a newsvender and tobacconist in a small way of business you will, in all probability, be addicted to the backing of horses. There are no published statistics on the point, and I confess I do not know why it should be so, but so I have found it in my experience.
Mr. William Crall, who had a small shop in the neighborhood of the Euston Road, was an interesting instance of this combination. ”