"I wished monkeys, but the others wished ponies and hundreds, so I gave in; Vandebur and I won two rubbers, and we'd just begun the third when the train stopped with a crash; none of us dropped the cards though, but the tricks and the scores all went down with the shaking.

'Can't play in that row,' said Charlie, for the women were shrieking like mad, and the engine was roaring like my mare Philippa--I'm afraid she'll never be cured, poor thing!--so I put my head out and asked what was up?
We'd run into a cattle train.

Anybody hurt?
No, nobody hurt; but we were to get out.

'I'll be shot if I get out,' I told 'em, 'till I've finished the rubber.' 'But you must get out,' said the guard; 'carriages must be moved.' 'Nobody says "must" to him,' said Van (he'd drank more Perles du Rhin than was good for him in Doncaster); 'don't you know the Seraph ?' Man stared.

'Yes, sir; know the Seraph, sir; leastways, did, sir, afore he died; see him once at Moulsey Mill, sir; his "one two" was amazin'.
Waters soon threw up the sponge.' We were all dying with laughter, and I tossed him a tenner.