below him.  Gordon turned to see rushing up the hill toward him Norman Wentworth.  He was picking up stones as he ran.  Gordon heard him call out something, but he did not wait for his words.  Here was his arch-enemy, his conqueror, and here, at least, he was his equal.  Without wasting further time with those above him, Gordon sprang toward his new assailant, and steadying himself, hurled his heaviest stone.  Fortunately, Norman Wentworth had been reared in the country and knew how to dodge as well as to throw a stone, or his days might have ended then and there.

“Hold on! don’t throw!” he shouted “I am coming to help you,” and, without waiting, he sent a stone far over Gordon’s head at the party on the height above.  Gordon, who was poising himself for another shot, paused amazed in the midst of his aim, open-mouthed and wide-eyed.

“Come on,” cried Norman.  “You and I together can lick them.  I know the way, and we will get above them.”  So saying, he dashed down a side alley, Gordon close at his heels, and, by making a turn, they came out a few minutes later on the hill above their enemies, who were rejoicing in their easy victory, and, catching them unprepared, routed them and scattered them in an instant.

Ferdy Wickersham, finding himself defeated, promptly surrendered and offered to enlist on their side.  Norman, however, had no idea of letting him off so easy.

“I am going to take you prisoner, but not until I have given you a good kicking.  You know better than to take sides against an American.”

“He is a rebel,” said Ferdy.

“He is an American,” said Norman.  And he forthwith proceeded to make good his word, and to do it in such honest style that Ferdy, after first taking it as a joke, got angry and ran away howling.

Gordon was doubtful as to the wisdom of this severity.

“He will tell,” he said.

“Let him,” said Norman, contemptuously.  “He knows what he will get if he does.  I was at school with him last year, and I am going to school with him again.  I will teach him to fight with any one else against an American!”

This episode made the two boys closer allies than they would have been in a year of peace.

General Keith, finding his mission fruitless, asked leave to return home immediately, so that Gordon saw little more of his former foe and new ally.

A few days before their departure, Gordon, passing along a road, came on a group of three persons, two children and a French governess with much-frizzled hair, very black eyes, and a small waist.  One of the children was a very little girl, richly dressed in a white frock with a blue sash that almost covered it, with big brown eyes and yellow ringlets; the other child was a ragged girl several years older, with tangled hair, gray eyes, and the ruddy, chubby cheeks so often seen in children of her class.  The governess was in a state of great excitement, and was talking