Victoria Four-thirty [antikvár]

BOOK ONE THEY SET OUT chapter one James Brown, of Victoria "YOU'D BETTER 'URRY UP!" called his mother, at the head of the stairs. "Righto!" shouted back Jim, bent over the kitchen sink. He rinsed his head and neck, washed the lather off his chest, dipped his face again, spluttered, raised his dripping head from the washbasin, and squeezed the water out of his thick chestnut curls. Then, taking a towel off the hook on the kitchen door, he began to rub himself until his red cheeks shone, and his smooth flesh glowed under the friction. He gave a glance at himself in the little square mirror over the sink, and saw his youthful figure, naked from the waist up. He set back his strong young shoulders, and braced himself, observing his developed biceps and pectoral muscles with brief satisfaction. He had every reason to be so fit, for he was carrying bags and swinging parcels about all day, and even before he became a porter at Victoria Station he had been the best boxer at the Lads' Club. He was broad in the shoulders, and tapered triangularly to a narrow waist and slim flanks, iiis white, hairless stomach was a boy's, as also his round face with its merry brown eyes. But, as he noted with satisfaction, his arms and torso were now those of a man. "Jim, what a mess you do make!" cried his mother, coming down into the kitchen, with dinner dishes in her hands. The lodger upstairs was ill in bed, and was having his meals taken up. "You can't clean up a mess and not make a mess," retorted the boy, good-humouredly. He had spent a busy and sooty