"Marry, ’tis a fierce youth and a strong," muttered the man. "I shall have to do him a mischief, an they come not soon. Ah! would you?" he said, as Ralph’s hand wriggled to get at his poignard, and in a trice the arm was wrenched out stiff and straight, and kept pinioned to the ground. Never had Ralph believed man could be so strong. But, still unconquered, the boy struggled with his legs, and raised himself off the ground with his heels. By a violent uplifting of his knees, he hit his captor a fierce blow in the back, causing him to fall forward on his face. With a desperate heave the boy pursued his advantage, and in another moment would have upset his adversary, when he felt his legs caught and pulled roughly down, once more he was utterly powerless. "Now, stripling," said his first assailant, still holding his arms stretched out, but getting off the boy’s chest, where he had been crushing the breath out of his body, "I told you it would be all for naught your wrestling like that. Will you tell me what you have come here for?" "Never," said Ralph resolutely. "Then, Bill," said his captor, "we shall even have to search him." Before Ralph knew what was happening, he felt his arms held by another man, while the first speaker carefully searched his pockets. "There’s naught here," he said, in a disappointed tone, as he turned out the contents of Ralph’s small clothes and tunic, and examined the miscellaneous collection of utterly useless articles which boys, from the earliest days down to the present, have set their hearts on forming, to the detriment of their pockets, the aggravation of their female relatives, and the marring of their own figure. "Nay, but there is," said the man who held his legs; "look’ee there, there’s summat whoite i’ the grass." "Marry, so there is!" and the first speaker picked up the missive of the Captain of the Wight and turned it over. "You base villains," said Ralph, "an you touch that, you will repent it!" A loud laugh greeted this remark; and the first speaker, rising, held the paper up to see if he could make anything out of it. "I can’t make it out," he said. "I must e’en take it to the light." "And what are we to do wi’ the lad while you be gone? Shall us knife un and pitch un over to cliff?" "Body o’ me, no! Do him no harm; hold him till I come back." So saying, the first speaker disappeared from Ralph’s line of sight.