ue!" roared Mark. "Why, you infamous,
lying cad: unsay every word! You know the money was borrowed for you,
and that you spent it on your miserable music! Confess it before I
break every bone in your skin!"

Staggered, mentally and bodily, by his cousin's retort, Richard Frayne
gave way, and was borne back against the ruined wall of the old
sanctuary; for Mark had, by a quick action, seized him hard by the
throat and held him fast.

"Why, you must be mad! You dare to say I did that, you infamous--
lying--"

He had gone too far, and there was a moment's pause; for, before he
could utter the next word, Richard Frayne had given himself a violent
wrench sidewise, freed himself and struck out at his assailant.

But it was a feeble blow, consequent upon his crippled position, and,
with a savage laugh, Mark turned at him again.

"I'll teach you to talk like that! Down on your knees and swear that it
was all a hatched-up lie, or--"

Mark Frayne's words were checked again, for he had never really seen of
what his cousin was capable till now. He knew that he took part in
athletic exercises, and he had had the gloves on with him often enough
before, and knocked him about to his heart's content. But he had now to
learn that Richard Frayne, the white-handed lover of music, fought
better without gloves than with, while the soft-palmed hands had
knuckles as bony as his own.

"Liar!" muttered Richard between his teeth as he struck out with his
left full at Mark's mouth, sending him staggering back, but only to
recover directly and come on furiously again.

There was only another round, and it was very short.

Richard Frayne, with every nerve twitching with rage and indignation,
followed up his second blow with others, planted so truly, and with such
effect, that within a minute he was driving his adversary back step by
step, till, blind now with fury, he put all his strength and weight into
a blow which sent Mark down like a piece of wood, to lie, inert, with
his head resting against the broken, lichen-covered fragment of an arch.

"Steady! Hold hard!" shouted a couple of voices, and the two young
fellow-pupils, who had followed, leaped down through a broken window,
from whence, hidden by the ivy, they had watched the fray.

"You second Dick Frayne," cried the first, "and I'll see to Mark."

Richard hardly heard what was said, for there was a sound as of surging
waters in his ears, followed by a roar of words that