'You're another--it wasn't!

''Twas, I tell you!'

'Twasn't!

'Gimme my knife; I don't play with sharps an' sneaks.'

'Won't!'

Gimme it!

All caution had been forgotten by this time, voices were shrill, and eyes
spoke of battle. Dick made at Jacker with a threatening fist, and Jacker,
with an adroitness for which he was famous, met him with a clip on the
shin from a copper-toed boot. Then the lads grappled and commenced a
vigorous and enthusiastic battle in the dirt and amongst the cobweb
curtains.

In the schoolroom above Joel Ham, startled from a dreamy drowsiness,
heard with wonder fierce voices under his feet, the sounds of blows and
of bumping heads, and saw his scholars all distracted. The master divined
the truth in a very few minutes.

'Cann, Peterson, Moonlight,' he called, 'follow me.'

He selected a favourite cane from the rack, and strutted out with the
curious boys at his heels.