ng of?"

"Oh!"

"Run! run!"

"Oh!"

These ejaculations were mingled with the blows dealt by our sticks,
several of which fell upon heads, backs, legs, and arms, anywhere,
though more struck the trees; and in the excitement one I delivered did
no end of mischief to a young pear-tree, and brought down a shower of
fruit upon my head.

It was all the work of a few moments. At the first the marauding party
thought it was some trick of a companion; directly after they scattered
and ran, under the impression that Old Brownsmith and all his men were
in pursuit.

As for me, I felt red-hot with excitement, and found myself after a dash
through some gooseberry bushes, whose pricking only seemed to give me
fresh energy, running along a path after one boy at whom I kept cutting
with my hazel stick.

At every stroke there was a howl from the boy, who kept on shouting as
he ran:

"Oh! please, sir--oh! sir--don't, sir--oh! pray, sir!"

In my hard-heartedness and excitement I showed no mercy, but every time
I got near enough as we panted on I gave him a sharp cut, and he would
have been punished far worse if all at once I had not run right into a
hanging bough of one of the pears, and gone down backwards, while when I
scrambled up again my stick was gone.

I felt that if I waited to search for it I should lose the boy I meant
to make a prisoner, and ran on in the direction where I could hear his
steps.

Knowing the garden as I did I was able to make a cut so as to recover
the lost ground, for I realised that he was making for the wall, and I
was just in time to catch him as he scrambled up one of the trained
trees, and had his chest on the top.

He would have been over in another second or two had I not made a jump
at his legs, one of which I caught, and, twisting my arms round it, I
held on with all my might.

"Oh! oh!" he yelled pitifully. "Pray let me go, sir. I'll never come
no more, sir. Help! oh my! help!"

"Come down," I panted as well as I could for want of breath, "come
down!" and I gave the leg I held a tremendous shake.

"Oh!--oh! Pray let me go this time, sir."

"Come down," I cried again fiercely, and I nearly dragged him from the
wall, as I held on with all my might.

"No, sir! oh, sir! It wasn't me, sir. It was--oh, please let me go!"

The voice sounded as if it were on the outside of the wall, as my
captive hung by his elbows and chest, while I could feel the leg I held
quiver and tremble