the others failed to reach it, Will Peake reached it, and lit in
my very footprints.

"A match again!" cried everyone, "and a close match, too!"

The gallant had made up to her again, and was tormenting her sweet ear
once more with his whispers. She stood rigid like a statue with her
eyes before her, showing only by the heaving of her bosom that she was
aware of his unwelcome presence.

"You keep us waiting, lad," cried the alderman. "Jump, unless you mean
to yield the victory to your adversary."

I jumped, listlessly again, and again alighted within an inch of my
former distance. And once again, Will Peake landed in my very hoof-
marks.

"A mortal match!" cried the crowd.

"One leap more," said the alderman, "and if that does not decide--"

He was there still, and, worse than before, had caught the little hand
that hung at her side in his. The colour had gone from her face. I saw
that she bit her lips, and for one moment her eyes looked up appealingly
and, so it seemed to me, met mine.

Then with my heart swelling big within me, I walked to the starting-
point, and ran for my last leap.

It was with all my might that I jumped now, and I cleared two good feet
beyond my former distance; so that the onlookers could scarcely shout
for amazement.

But I waited neither for their shouts nor for Will's jump, for I knew he
could not reach me. With beating heart, and fingers digging into the
palms of my hands, I walked straight to where she stood, pale and
trembling. Her right hand was still his prisoner, and his cursed lips
were still at her ear. But not for long.

Before he was aware, I had seized him with a grip which made him howl;
and next moment he was reeling and staggering a dozen yards away in the
midst of the enclosure. It all happened so quickly that even she seemed
scarcely to know of her deliverance, till she saw him draw his sword and
look round for me.

Then, to draw the combat away from her, I went on to meet him with my
club; and before his first onset was done, his sword flew over his head
in two pieces. It was an old trick, and cost nothing to a 'prentice
outside Temple Bar. And while he looked round, bewildered, after his
weapon, I took him by the nape of his neck and the cloth of his
breeches, and walked with him to the pond hard by, where I left him, and
so was well rid of him.

By this time the Fields were in an uproar. So intent had all been on
the leaping, to see if Will Peak