g stretched out
upon the grass beneath, a tree at the edge of the open court where stood
the pels, were interested spectators of the whole scene. Not one of them
in their memory had heard Sir James so answered face to face as Myles
had answered him, and, after all, perhaps the lad himself would not
have done so had he been longer a resident in the squires' quarters at
Devlen.

"By 'r Lady! thou art a cool blade, Myles," said Gascoyne, as they
marched back to the armory again. "Never heard I one bespeak Sir James
as thou hast done this day."

"And, after all," said another of the young squires, "old Bruin was not
so ill-pleased, methinks. That was a shrewd blow he fetched thee on the
crown, Falworth. Marry, I would not have had it on my own skull for a
silver penny."

CHAPTER 7

So little does it take to make a body's reputation.

That night all the squires' quarters buzzed with the story of how the
new boy, Falworth, had answered Sir James Lee to his face without fear,
and had exchanged blows with him hand to hand. Walter Blunt himself was
moved to some show of interest.

"What said he to thee, Falworth?" asked he.

"He said naught," said Myles, brusquely. "He only sought to show me how
to recover from the under cut."

"It is passing strange that he should take so much notice of thee as to
exchange blows with thee with his own hand. Haply thou art either very
quick or parlous slow at arms."

"It is quick that he is," said Gascoyne, speaking up in his friend's
behalf. "For the second time that Falworth delivered the stroke, Sir
James could not reach him to return; so I saw with mine own eyes."

But that very sterling independence that had brought Myles so creditably
through this adventure was certain to embroil him with the rude,
half-savage lads about him, some of whom, especially among the
bachelors, were his superiors as well in age as in skill and training.
As said before, the bachelors had enforced from the younger boys a
fagging sort of attendance on their various personal needs, and it was
upon this point that Myles first came to grief. As it chanced, several
days passed before any demand was made upon him for service to the heads
of the squirehood, but when that demand was made, the bachelors were
very quick to see that the boy who was bold enough to speak up to Sir
James Lee was not likely to be a willing fag for them.

"I tell thee, Francis," he said, as Gascoyne and he talked over the
matter