had long pointed toes stuffed with tow or
wool. In muddy weather thick heavy clogs or wooden soles were strapped,
like a skate, to the bottom of the foot. That clog which Blunt had
seized was perhaps eighteen or twenty inches long, two or two and a half
inches thick at the heel, tapering to a point at the toe. As the older
lad advanced, Gascoyne stepped between him and his victim.

"Do not harm him, Blunt," he pleaded. "Bear thou in mind how new-come he
is among us. He knoweth not our ways as yet."

"Stand thou back, Gascoyne," said Blunt, harshly, as he thrust him
aside. "I will teach him our ways so that he will not soon forget them."

Close to Myles's feet was another clog like that one which Blunt held.
He snatched it up, and set his back against the wall, with a white face
and a heart beating heavily and tumultuously, but with courage steeled
to meet the coming encounter. There was a hard, grim look in his blue
eyes that, for a moment perhaps, quelled the elder lad. He hesitated.
"Tom! Wat! Ned!" he called to the other bachelors, "come hither, and
lend me a hand with this knave."

"An ye come nigh me," panted Myles, "I will brain the first within
reach."

Then Gascoyne dodged behind the others, and, without being seen, slipped
out of the room for help.

The battle that followed was quick, sharp, and short. As Blunt strode
forward, Myles struck, and struck with might and main, but he was too
excited to deliver his blow with calculation. Blunt parried it with the
clog he held, and the next instant, dropping his weapon, gripped Myles
tight about the body, pinning his arms to his sides.

Myles also dropped the clog he held, and, wrenching out his right
arm with a sudden heave, struck Blunt full in the face, and then with
another blow sent him staggering back. It all passed in an instant; the
next the three other bachelors were upon him, catching him by the body,
the arms, the legs. For a moment or two they swayed and stumbled hither
and thither, and then down they fell in a struggling heap.

Myles fought like a wild-cat, kicking, struggling, scratching; striking
with elbows and fists. He caught one of the three by his collar, and
tore his jacket open from the neck to the waist; he drove his foot into
the pit of the stomach of another, and knocked him breathless. The other
lads not in the fight stood upon the benches and the beds around, but
such was the awe inspired by the prestige of the bachelors that not one