"Then," cried the novice, reddening with excitement, "I'll fight
him. And if I lick him you will have to hand over your belt as
champion of the colonies to me."

"So I will," said Skene, affectionately. "Don't out late; and don't
for your life touch a drop of liquor. You must go into training
to-morrow."

This was Cashel Byron's first professional engagement.






CHAPTER I





Wiltstoken Castle was a square building with circular bastions at
the corners, each bastion terminating skyward in a Turkish minaret.
The southwest face was the front, and was pierced by a Moorish arch
fitted with glass doors, which could be secured on occasion by gates
of fantastically hammered iron. The arch was enshrined by a
Palladian portico, which rose to the roof, and was surmounted by an
open pediment, in the cleft of which stood a black-marble figure of
an Egyptian, erect, and gazing steadfastly at the midday sun. On the
ground beneath was an Italian terrace with two great stone elephants