These gentlemen
were facing rather our way as we came over the edge of the eminence, but
turned their backs on perceiving our approach. As they did so, I remember
so well each lowered his cigar suddenly with the simultaneousness of a
drill. The third figure sustained the picnic character of the group, for he
was repacking a hamper. He stood suddenly erect as we drew near, and a very
ill-looking person he was, low-browed, square-chinned, and with a broad,
broken nose. He wore gaiters, and was a little bandy, very broad, and had
a closely-cropped bullet head, and deep-set little eyes. The moment I saw
him, I beheld the living type of the burglars and bruisers whom I had so
often beheld with a kind of scepticism in _Punch_. He stood over his hamper
and scowled sharply at us for a moment; then with the point of his foot he
jerked a little fur cap that lay on the ground into his hand, drew it tight
over his lowering brows, and called to his companions, just as we passed
him--'Hallo! mister. How's this?'
'All right,' said the tall person in the white great-coat, who, as he
answered, shook his shorter companion by the arm, I thought angrily.
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