and
then to refuse to fence with him any longer. This Blackall seemed to
suspect, and to be on his guard against, while his aim was too clearly
to wound, if not to kill, his opponent. Ernest under these very trying
circumstances kept perfectly cool. He had parried every thrust which
Blackall had made, but the latter at length pressed him so hard that he
had to retreat a few paces. Once more he stood his ground, and defended
himself as before. As he did so, suddenly he felt his foot slip, and,
while he was trying to recover himself, Blackall pressed in on him, and
sent his foil completely through his shoulder. One of the boys had just
before dropped a lump of grease, which had been the cause of the
accident. Ernest felt himself borne backwards, and, before any one
could catch him, he fell heavily to the ground. The blood flowed
rapidly from the wound; a sickness came over him, and he fainted.
Blackall pretended to be very much grieved at what had occurred; but the
fencing-master, looking at him sternly, asked him how it was that he
could use a foil without knowing that the button was off.

"And what is the meaning of this, let me ask?" he said, stooping down,
and with his knife hooking out the end of a foil from a chink in the
boards. "The point was broken off on purpose. You have tried to kill
that young lad there. I know it; and I shall take you before the
Doctor, and let him judge the case."

"What makes you say that?" asked Blackall, turning very pale. "Why
should you suppose I should wish to hurt Bracebridge?"

"I know it--I know it," was the only answer he got, while Mr Strutt
with several of the boys was engaged in lifting Ernest, and binding up
his shoulder to stop the bleeding. Blackall knelt down to assist, but
the fencing-master sternly ordered him to stand back.

"I will not trust you," he exclaimed. "You are a bad fellow! I believe
it now. I see it all clearly. I ought not to have allowed such an one
as you to fence with him. If he dies, you will be his murderer;
remember that. You shall know the truth from me, at all events." Thus
did the excitable but kind-hearted fencing-master run on.

As he and some of the boys were about to lift Ernest off the ground, to
carry him upstairs, Monsieur Malin came in. When he had ascertained the
state of affairs, he immediately sent off Buttar to summon the surgeon
who attended the school, which it seemed no one else had thought of
doing. The pr