hool boys backed them on with eager shouts of--"Now
Eric, now Eric." "Now Montagu, go it sixth-form," etcetera, both of
them fought under a sense of deep disgrace, increased by the
recollections which they shared in common.

All this Vernon marked in a moment, and, filled with pain and vexation,
he said in a voice which, though low, could be heard amid all the
uproar, "O Eric, Eric, fighting with Montagu!" There was reproach and
sorrow in the tone, which touched more than one boy there, for Vernon,
spite of the recent change in him, could not but continue a popular
favourite.

"Shut up there, you little donkey," shouted one or two, looking back at
him for a moment.

But Eric heard the words, and knew that it was his brother's voice. The
thought rushed on him how degraded his whole position was, and how
different it might have been. He felt that he was utterly in the wrong,
and Montagu altogether in the right; and from that moment his blows once
more grew feeble and ill-directed. When they again stopped to take
rest, the general shout for Montagu showed that he was considered to
have the best of it.

"I'm getting so tired of this," muttered Eric, during the pause.

"Why, you're fighting like a regular muff," said Graham; "you'll have to
acknowledge yourself thrashed in a minute."

"That I'll _never_ do," he said, once more firing up. Just as the third
round began, Duncan came striding in, for Owen, who had left the room,
told him what was going on. He had always been a leading fellow, and
quite recently his influence had several times been exerted in the right
direction, and he was very much looked up to by all the boys alike, good
or bad. He determined, for the credit of the sixth, that the fight
should not go on, and bursting into the ring, with his strong shoulders
he hurled on each side the boys who stood in his way, and struck down
the lifted arms of the fighters.

"You _shan't_ fight," he said doggedly, thrusting himself between them;
"so there's an end of it. If you do, you'll both have to fight me
first."

"Shame!" said several of the boys, and the cry was caught up by Ball and
others.

"Shame, is it?" said Duncan, and his lip curled with scorn. "There's
only one way to argue with you fellows. Ball, if you or any other boy
repeat that word, I'll thrash him. Here, Monty, come away from this
disgraceful scene."

"I'm sick enough of it," said Montagu, "and am ready to stop if Williams
is,--