I was down and up again in a moment, and rushing blindly at him with a cut lip and bloody mouth. He kept quite cool, and met me over and over again with stunning blows. I didn’t care. I hardly felt them in my rage; my long pent-up feelings had burst their bonds and I was quite beside myself. In the midst I was caught in the leash of a sinewy hand and torn away. For some moments I fought and screamed in my madness; then suddenly desisted, gasping and trembling all over. Red seemed to clear from my eyes, and I saw. The parasites were fled; Harry Harrier stood opposite me, hanging his head and his twitching hands; and in possession of us both was Mr. Sant. A little silence followed; then suddenly the clergyman released me and stepped aside. “You’re a strong boy, Harrier,” he said, quietly. “You’ve had the advantage of some training, too. This was hardly brave.” “He called me a coward, sir,” muttered the boy. “You’ve got to prove he was wrong, then.” Harrier twitched his shoulders, and gave a defiant upward look. “What!” said Mr. Sant. “Do you call it proving it to attack him six to one?” “I takes no count of that raff, sir,” said the boy. “’Twas him and me fought.” “But you used them to provoke him--not content with insulting him yourself day by day as he came to his lesson. Yes; I know.” I looked up amazed, and then down again. Certain tell-tale rustlings that had reached my ears occasionally from the back of the rectory palings occurred to me, so that I hung my head with shame. “Well, your reverence,” said the boy, rather insolently, “pay me, and get it over. I takes my capers with my mutton.” “I shall pay you, sir,” said Mr. Sant, with, I could have thought, the ghost of a grin, “as one gentleman pays another. You think, perhaps, that Master Bowen here has told of your bullying him. He has not breathed a word about it to anybody. Now that, I think, shows him to be the better man of the two.” The surprise, the gratification were so great, I could have cried out to him like a silly girl. The young gamekeeper grinned, incredulous and sarcastic. “You think not?” said Mr. Sant. “Well, I’ll tell you what I’m going to do--I’m going to back _my_ man to whop you by-and-by.” The boy looked up at him, breathless now. “You’ve all the advantage at present, you know,” went on the clergyman. “You’ve got constitution, muscle, and a little of the science--not so much as you think, but still a little. Now Master Bowen isn’t your equal in any of these, as I suspect you knew, or you wouldn’t have attacked him.” “I would!” said the boy, furiously.