id of my uncle,
could do very little against superior numbers.

What the upshot might have been--whether we should have been eventually
ejected from our own lodgings, or whether the invaders would presently
have wearied of their sport and made off of their own accord--I cannot
say, but just as things were looking at their worst for us an opportune
diversion occurred which turned the tide of battle.

This was none other than the simultaneous arrival of Billy and Flanagan.
The latter, I recollected, had promised to look in during the evening,
to see how Jack had fared at the examination.

In the general confusion the new-comers entered the room almost
unnoticed. The unexpected scene which met their eyes in our usually
quiet quarters naturally alarmed them, and it was a second or more
before, in the midst of all the riot, they could make out what was the
matter.

Billy was the first to recover himself. The sight of Jack Smith being
attacked by Masham was quite enough for him, and, with a cry of, "Do you
hear, you let him be!" he sprang upon his patron's assailant like a
young tiger.

Poor, gallant Billy! Masham, taken aback to find himself thus attacked
by a small boy who seemed to come from nowhere, recoiled for an instant
before his vigorous onslaught. But it was only for an instant.
Stepping back, and leaving the others to engage Jack and me, he seized
the boy by the arm, and, dealing him a blow on the side of the head,
flung him savagely to the floor, adding a brutal kick as he lay there,
stunned and senseless at his feet.

The sight of this outrage was all that was wanted to rouse us to one
desperate effort to rid ourselves of our cowardly invaders. Jack closed
in an instant with Masham, and by sheer force carried him to the door
and literally flung him from the room. The others, one by one,
followed. Some, half ashamed at the whole proceeding, slunk away of
their own accord; the others, seeing themselves worsted, lost spirit,
and made but a slight resistance to our united assault, now vigorously
reinforced by Flanagan.

The last to leave was Whipcord, who endeavoured to carry the thing off
with his usual swagger to the last. "Well, ta, ta, Batch," he said; "we
just looked in to see how you were, that's all. Thanks for the jolly
evening. By-bye, old Jack Ketch, and--"

And here, in consequence of a sudden forward movement from Flanagan, he
hurriedly withdrew, and left us for the first time that eve