He was the first to speak, and calling up the low cunning of his nature, he advanced a step or two, saying: "I say, you'd better hook it; that, gent's a-looking for you." "You give me my bundle," I said, making a snatch at it, and getting hold with one hand, to which I soon joined the other. "'Taint your bundle," he said fiercely. "Let go, or I'll soon let you know. Let go, will yer?" He shook at it savagely, and dragged me here and there, for he was the bigger and stronger; but I held on with all my might. I was horribly frightened of him, for he was a coarse, ruffianly-looking fellow; but inside that bundle was my little all, and I determined not to give it up without a struggle. "Here, you wait till I get my knife out," he roared. "It's my bundle, yer young thief!" "It is not," I panted: "you stole it from me while I lay asleep." "Yer lie! Take that!" _That_ was a heavy blow on my chin which cut my lip, and seemed to loosen my teeth, causing me intense pain; but though for a moment I staggered back, the blow had just the opposite effect to that intended by the boy. A few moments before, I was so horribly afraid of him, that I felt that I must give up; now the pain seemed to have driven all the fear out of me, for, springing at him with clenched fists, I struck out wildly, and with all my might; the bundle went down in the dust, and, after a minutes scuffle, and a shower of blows, there, to my intense astonishment, lay the boy too, grovelling and twisting about, rubbing his eyes with his fists, and howling dismally. "You let me alone; I never did nothing to you," he whined. "You did; you stole my bundle," I cried, in the heat of my triumph. "No, I didn't. I on'y picked it up. I didn't know it was yourn." "You knew I was by it," I said. "Yes; but I thought perhaps it weren't yourn," he howled. "Now look here," I said, "you give me what you took out of it." "I didn't take nothing out of it," he whined. "I was only going to, when that gent came along on the shay, and asked me where you was." "You've got my best shoes on," I said. "Take them off." He pulled them off, having half spoiled them by cutting the fronts, to let his feet go in. "Where's that gentleman now?" I said. "I don't know," he whined. "He said if I didn't show him where you was, he'd hand me over to the police; and I cut off across the fields, when we was walking the pony up a hill." "You're a nice blackguard," I said, cooling down fast now, as the fear of Mr Blakeford came back. I was wondering, too, how to get rid of my conquest, when, just as I stooped to pick up the shoes, he shrank away, uttering a cowardly howl, as if I had aimed a blow at him; and, starting up, he ran back along the lane shoeless, and seemed making for the high road.