de. His head struck a loose paving brick. He
moaned and closed his eyes.

"Four--medals!" he voiced faintly.

"Come on, Clark," said Ralph.

He snatched the arm of his new acquaintance and tried to force his way
to the alley opening. Thus they proceeded a few feet, but only a few.
A hush had fallen over Bouncer's friends, at the amazing sight of
their redoubtable champion gone down in inglorious defeat, but only
for a moment. One of the largest boys in the group rallied the
disorganized mob.

"Out with your smashers!" he shouted. "Don't let them get away!"

Ralph pulled, or rather forced his companion back against two steps
with an iron railing, leading to the little platform of the alley
door of a building fronting on the street.

"No show making a break," he continued in rapid tones. "Look at the
cowards!"

At the call of their new leader, the crowd to its last member whipped
out their weapons. They were made of some hard substance like lead,
and incased in leather. They were attached to the wrist by a long
loop, which enabled their possessors to strike a person at long range,
the object of the attack having no chance to resist or defend
himself.

"Grab the railing," ordered Clark, whom Ralph was beginning to
recognize as a quick-witted fellow in an emergency. "Now then, keep
side by side--any tactics to hold them at bay or drive them off."

The two friends had secured quite a tactical position, and they
proceeded to make the most of it. The mob with angry yells made for
them direct. They jostled one another in their eager malice to strike
a blow. They crowded close to the steps, and their ugly weapons shot
out from all directions.

One of the weapons landed on Ralph's hand grasping the iron railing,
and quite numbed and almost crippled it. A fellow used his weapon as a
missile, on purpose or by mistake. At all events, it whirled from his
hand through the air, and striking Clark's cheek, laid it open with
quite a ghastly wound. Clark reached over and snatched a slungshot
from the grasp of another of the assaulting party. He handed it
quickly to his companion.

"Use it for all it's worth," he suggested rapidly. "Don't let them
down us, or we're goners."

As he spoke, Clark, nettled with pain, balanced himself on the railing
and sent both feet flying into the faces of the onpressing mob. These
tactics were wholly unexpected by the enemy. One of their number went
reeling back, his nose nearly flattened t