Now, although the Birchites had proved themselves equal to their
opponents at football, they would have stood no chance against them in
anything like a personal encounter. The other party were, of course,
perfectly well aware of this fact, and waxed bold in consequence.
Again and again, when Mr. Welsby's pupils were at football practice, and
Mr. Blake happened not to be present, the enemy's sharp-shooter crept
into ambush behind the hedge and discharged stones from their catapults
at the legs of the players, while the latter replied by inquiring when
they meant to "come over and take another licking." At other times
these Horace House Cossacks swooped down on single members of the rival
establishment, harrying them in the very streets of Chatford, and on one
occasion had the audacity to lay violent hands on Jacobs, beat his
bowler hat down over his eyes, and push him through the folding doors of
a drapery establishment, where he upset an umbrella-stand and three
chairs, had his ears boxed by the shop-walker, and was threatened with
the police court if ever he did such a thing again! At length it became
positively perilous for the weaker party to go beyond the precincts of
their own citadel except in bodies of three or four together. All kinds
of plans for retaliation were suggested, but still the Philistines
continued to score heavily. At length, about the last week in October,
a thing happened which raised the wrath of the Birchites to
boiling-point.

Cross having received five shillings from home on the morning of his
birthday, determined to celebrate the occasion by the purchase of a
pork-pie, of which he had previously invited all his companions to
partake. The latter were standing in the playground waiting for his
return from Chatford, when they became conscious of certain "alarms
without;" whoops and war-cries sounded somewhere down Locker's Lane,
and ceased as suddenly as they had begun. The boys stood for some