ut, in a white heat with passion; and, without
waiting for him to give me the first blow, I sprang up and planted my
fist between his eyes, knocking him back so suddenly that he would have
fallen but for the others advancing closer and shoring him up, as it
were, by their pressure, so that he couldn't tumble down.

"Oh, that's it, is it?" said my opponent, recovering himself at once
quickly; and, before I could put up my hands, he had dealt me two
swinging blows right and left, making my nose bleed and bringing me in a
heap on to the ground.

I was not beaten, however, for I was on my feet again in a second,
dashing in madly at him; and, but for the intervention of another boy,
not quite so tall as my antagonist, but with much broader shoulders and
of heavier weight, who got in between us and prevented further
hostilities, I should probably have come to sad grief.

"Let him alone, Slodgers; he's only a new boy, remember," said this
peacemaker, warning me off with one outstretched arm while he pushed
back my antagonist with the other, as he was making for me again.

"I know he's a new boy; but the cheeky young beggar has given me a black
eye, confound him! and the Doctor is safe to see it when we go in. I
must pay him out for it, Larkyns; move away, and I'll thrash him within
an inch of his life!"

With these words, the tall boy, or Slodgers, as he was called, made
another rush at me; but the other interposed once more, and this time
more forcibly.

"No, I tell you," said he, "let him alone, or I'll have to make you,"
and he gave Slodgers a quiet sort of tap on the chest that had the
effect of at once stopping his advance, the bully and coward, as he
seemed to me to be, retiring sulkily to the corner of the yard under the
tree, accompanied by two of his select cronies, grumbling in an
undertone about "somebody's" meddlesomeness in interfering with "other
people's business," although he did not take any further notice of the
stalwart Samaritan who had thus come so opportunely to my aid, baulking
the summary vengeance he had intended taking on my unhappy head.

The other boys, too, were just as disgusted at the turn events had
taken, for they had looked for rare sport in seeing me mauled by their
champion. They also now went off in a body, leaving my protector and
myself alone together, close to the steps where the little fracas had
occurred.

"You are a plucky fellow," said my new friend, confidentially, as soo