t it in his pocket, and
then laid hold of the dog's hind leg and dragged it towards the river.

"You let him go now, come," whimpered Harry.

"Wow--wow--wow--wow--wow--wow," said the boys, mocking Harry's whimper,
and in another moment poor Dick would have been plunged in, when Harry,
pushing back one of the Stapleses, who tried to stop him, planted such a
well-directed blow in Bill Jenkins's ear that he dropped the dog in a
moment, and shook his head as though something was buzzing inside it, as
no doubt there was, for the blow was a smart one, Master Harry having
had boxing gloves on more than once at school.

But this was the signal for a combined attack from the enemy upon Harry,
who struck out manfully, but was getting terribly knocked about, when
Philip dashed into the fray, and relieved his brother of one assailant.
But two were too many for Harry, and seeing Fred doing nothing, he
shouted to him for help.

Poor Fred! He felt terribly alarmed, and would gladly have run away;
but he saw Philip punching away at his adversary like a Trojan, while
Harry, with the blood streaming down his face, was being beaten back
step by step towards the river by his two formidable opponents. This
was too much for Fred, who threw off his cap and jacket and then crept
cautiously up to try and aid his cousin, who was getting rapidly
worsted. Now Fred afterwards confessed that he felt dreadfully alarmed,
and Bill Jenkins evidently saw this, and tried to frighten him away; but
he went the wrong way to work, for as Fred came timidly up, Bill swung
round one of his long arms, and gave the new-comer a back-handed smack
in his mouth that made the blood spurt out in a moment, and then, by a
clever thrust of his leg, tripped him up so that he lay sprawling on the
grass. But this blow, instead of frightening the town-bred lad, knocked
all the fear out of him; for, to Bill Jenkins's great astonishment, he
leapt up as though made of springs, and dashed at him like a fury.

From that moment, Harry had only one enemy to deal with, for Bill
Jenkins began to find that he was getting such a thrashing as he never
before had in his life. Fred's fists battered him about the face like a
shower of blows, and in the scuffles that ensued the big lad was more
than once completely knocked off his feet. He had very soon had enough
of it, and began to show it; but Fred had not, for he warmed with the
fray, and, in spite of the other's cries for quart