little 'un; serve him out. Keep the rest back boys; steady!" Tom
and Drysdale faced towards the crowd, while a little gownsman and
his antagonist--who defended himself vigorously enough now--came
to close quarters, in the rear of the gown line; too close to
hurt one another but what with hugging and cuffing the townsman
in another half-minute was sitting quietly on the pavement with
his back against the wall, his enemy squaring in front of him,
and daring him to renew the combat. "Get up, you coward; get up,
I say, you coward! He won't get up," said the little man, eagerly
turning to the Captain. "Shall I give him a kick?"

"No, let the cur alone," replied Jervis. "Now, do any more of you
want to fight? Come on like men one at a time. I'll fight any man
in the crowd."

Whether the challenge would have been answered must rest
uncertain; for now the crowd began to look back, and a cry arose,
"Here they are, proctors! now they'll run."

"So we must, by Jove, Brown," said the Captain. "What's your
college?" to the little hero.

"Pembroke."

"Cut away, then; you're close at home."

"Very well, if I must; good night," and away went the small man
as fast as he had come; and it has never been heard that he came
to further grief, or performed other feats that night.

"Hang it, don't let's run," said Drysdale.

"Is it the proctors?" said Tom. "I can t see them."

"Mark the bloody-faced one; kick him over," sang out a voice in
the crowd.

"Thank'ee," said Tom, savagely. "Let's have one rush at them."

"Look! there's the proctor's cap just through them; come along
boys--well, stay if you like, and be rusticated, I'm off," and
away went Jervis, and the next moment Tom and Drysdale followed
the good example, and, as they had to run, made the best use of
their legs, and in two minutes were well ahead of their pursuers.
They turned a corner; "Here, Brown! alight in this public, cut
in, and it's all right." Next moment they were in the dark
passage of a quiet little inn, and heard with a chuckle part of
the crowd scurry by the door in pursuit, while they themselves
suddenly appeared in the neat little bar, to the no small
astonishment of its occupants. These were a stout elderly woman
in spectacles, who was stitching away at plain work in an
arm-chair on one side of the fire; the foreman of one of the
great boat-builders, who sat opposite her, smoking his pipe with
a long glass of clear ale at his elbow; and a bright-eye