ere: you can't get over that."

Percy could not get over that. The shot completely dismantled at one
blow the whole of his fortifications, and left him at his enemy's mercy.
Giving up on the instant he whimpered pitifully--

"Please don't be hard on me, sir; I have been a scoundrel, but if you--
you--could give me another chance--"

Boy prevailed, and all Percy Thorne's manliness went to the winds. He
was very young yet in spite of his size, and, try how he would to keep
them back, the weak tears came, and he could not say another word.

"Give you another chance, eh?" said the visitor sharply. "That's all
very well, but we've got to get you out of this scrape first. Your
people, Suthers, Rubley, and Spark, write as if they meant to prosecute
you for robbing them."

"But I meant to pay it again, sir--I did indeed!" cried Percy.

"Yes: of course. That's what all fellows who go in for a bit of a spree
with other people's coin say to themselves, so as to give them Dutch
courage. But it won't do!"

"But indeed I should have paid it sir."

"If you had won, which wasn't likely, boy. Only one in a thousand wins,
my lad, and it's always somebody else--not you. Now then, suppose I set
to work and get these people, Suthers, Rubley, and Spark"--he repeated
the names with great gusto--"to quash the prosecution on account of your
youth and the respectability of your relations, what would you do?"

"Oh, I'd be so grateful, sir! I'd never, never bet again, or put money
on horses, or--"

"Make a fool of yourself, eh?"

"No, sir; indeed, indeed I would not."

"Well, what sort of people are these Suthers, Rubley, and Spark?"

"Oh! dreadful cads, sir."

"If you say that again," cried the ex-butcher sharply, "I won't make a
stroke to get you out of your trouble."

Percy stared at him with astonishment.

"It's all very fine!" cried Mr William Forth Burge. "Every one who
don't do just as you like is a cad, I suppose. People have often called
me a cad because I've not had so good an education and can't talk and
speak like they do; and sometimes the cads are on the other side."

"I'm very sorry, sir," faltered Percy.

"Then don't you call people cads, young fellow. Now then, you mean to
give up all your stupid tricks, and to grow into a respectable man,
don't you?"

"Yes, sir; I'll try," said Percy humbly.

"Then just you go to your bedroom, brush that streaky hair off your
forehead, take out that pin, and p