flaming in his eyes. The instant, however, that he saw the fighting
attitude into which poor Hazel had thrown himself, Yahoo smiled,
stripped, and set to. I am sorry to say that it was a good while before
Hazel could get one single blow at his accomplished opponent; whom,
however, he at length began to wear out. Then he gave the Yahoo a
miserable pommelling, to be sure; and finished by knocking out five of
his front teeth, viz. three in the upper, and two in the under
jaw--beautifully white and regular they certainly had been; and the loss
of them caused him great affliction on the score of his appearance, and
also, not a little interfered with the process of cigar-smoking. It
would, besides, have debarred him, had he been so disposed, from
enlisting as a soldier, inasmuch as he could not bite off the end of his
cartridge: wherefore, it would seem, that Hazel had committed the
offence of _Mayhem_.[17] Mr. Gammon condoled heartily with Mr. Yahoo, on
hearing of the brutal attack which had been made upon him; and as the
assault had not been committed in the presence of a witness, strongly
recommended him to bring an action of trespass _vi et armis_ against
Hazel, which Gammon undertook to conduct to--a nonsuit. While they were
conversing in this friendly way together, it suddenly occurred to Gammon
that there was another service which he could render to Mr. Yahoo, and
with equally strict observance of the injunction, _not to let his left
hand know what his right hand did_; for he loved the character of a
secret benefactor. So he wrote up a letter to Snap, (whom he knew to
have been treated very insolently by Yahoo,) desiring him to go to two
or three Jew bill-brokers and money-lenders, and ascertain whether they
had any paper by them with the name of "Yahoo" upon it:--and in the
event of such being discovered, he was to act in the manner pointed out
by Gammon. Off went Snap like a shot, on receiving this letter; and the
very first gentleman he applied to, viz. a Mr. SUCK'EM DRY, proved to be
possessed of an acceptance of Yahoo's for £200, for which Dry had given
only twenty-five pounds, on speculation. He readily yielded to Snap's
offer, to give him a shy at Mr. Yahoo _gratis_--and put the document
into the hands of Snap; who forthwith delivered it, confidentially, to
Swinddle Shark, gent., one &c., a little Jew attorney in Chancery Lane,
into whose office the dirty work of Quirk, Gammon, and Snap was
swept--in cases where they did not choose to appear. I wish the
mutilated Yahoo could have seen the mouthful of glittering teeth that
were displayed by the hungry Jew, on receiving the above commission. His
duties, though of a painful, were of a brief and simple description.
'Twas a plain case of _Indorsee_ v. _Acceptor_. The affidavit of debt
was sworn the same afternoon; and within an hour's time afterwards, a
thin slip of paper was delivered into the hands of the under-sheriff of
Yorkshire, commanding him to take the body[18] of Pimp Yahoo, if he
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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