n't good enough for him, does he?" said Masham.

"So used to the handcuffs," said Abel, "doesn't know how to use his
hands, that's it."

"But we don't know yet who this old weathercock is," cried Whipcord,
turning again to my uncle. "What do they call you at home, old Stick-
in-the-mud?" and he nudged him in the ribs by way of emphasis.

It was time I interposed. Hitherto, in sheer helplessness, I had stood
by and watched the invasion with silent despair. Now, however, that my
uncle seemed to be in danger of rough handling, something must be done.

"If you fellows have any pretence to be called gentlemen," I shouted, in
tones choked with mingled shame and anger, "you will leave Jack's room
and mine."

"Jack's! who's Jack? Is the old pawnbroker called Jack, then? Oh, I
say, you fellows," cried Whipcord, dropping on a chair, and nearly
choking himself with a fit of laughter. "Oh, you fellows, I've got it
at last. I've got it. Jack! I know who it is."

"Who is it?" cried the others.

"Why, can't you guess?" yelled Whipcord.

"No! Who?"

"Jack Ketch!"

This new idea was taken up with the utmost rapture, and my uncle was
forthwith dubbed with his fresh title.

"Three cheers for Uncle Ketch, you fellows!" shouted Whipcord.

The cheers were given with great hubbub. Then my uncle was called upon
for a speech, and, as he declined, a proposal was made to compel him.

Up to this time, protest as well as resistance had seemed worse than
useless. Jack and I were only two against seven, and our visitors were
hardly in a condition to give us fair play, even if we did come to
blows. But our wrath had been gradually approaching boiling-point, and
now the time seemed to have come to brave all consequences and assert
ourselves.

Whipcord and Masham had each seized one of my uncle's arms, with a view
to carry out their threat, when by a mutual impulse Jack, and I assumed
the defensive and rushed into the fray. Both our adversaries were, of
course, utterly unprepared for such a demonstration, and in consequence,
and before they could either of them take in the state of affairs, they
were sprawling at full length on the floor. The whole action was so
rapidly executed that it was not for a moment or two that the rest of
the party took in the fact that the affair was something more than a
joke. When, however, they did so, a general engagement ensued, in which
Jack and I, even with the unlooked-for and gallant a