Polkinghorne turned to Hilaria.

“Someone will see you home, of course,” he said politely.  “I shall have to stay as stickler, and Carminow as well, but I’ll send Moss and the young ’un with you.  And mind you keep your jaws shut about it when you get back to the school, you two.”

Polkinghorne minor and Moss both looked considerably taken aback, but not more so than Hilaria.  “Oh, I must stay, Polkinghorne,” she pleaded, feeling for the first time a terrible sensation of not being wanted, of an unimportance essential to her sex and beyond her power to alter whatever her tastes or her justifiable reliance on her own nerves.  But Polkinghorne, backed by Killigrew and Ishmael himself, was adamant, though Carminow saw no reason why she should not stay if it interested her.  They stood waiting till her crinoline, like a huge piece of blown thistledown, had swayed around a curve of the path which hid it and the two little boys from sight, and then they prepared for business.

CHAPTER XIII

THE WRESTLING

It was growing swiftly dusk, though the amphitheatre of turf where the boys stood, cupped the last of the light from the west, backed as it was by the semi-circle of tall rocks.

Polkinghorne made a quick survey of the place, then placed his men so that the light fell sideways, not directly upon either face.

“Shoes off, Doughty!” he ordered.  “None of your nasty Devonshire ways here!” For the Devon rules admit kicking, and that with shoes, while Cornish, though allowing leg-play, insist it should be in stocking-feet, and consist of tripping and locking only.  The whole West Country style of wrestling differs enormously from the North Country, in which Ishmael would have stood a poor chance against an opponent so much his superior in size.  In the West they play for a hitch, instead of trying for a fall by sheer strength and weight, and if the smaller wrestler has a stock of good holds, and can only get under his opponent quickly enough, he may bring off the “flying mare,” the great throw clear over the shoulder.  Leg-play is the great feature, even in Cornwall, where prominence is given to the hug, and Ishmael had very strong legs, though his shoulders were not so heavy as Doughty’s.

He took his stand opposite Doughty.  He had never wrestled with him before, but he had had much practice with boys of all builds.  He eyed him closely and knew his best chance lay in trying to rush him so as to get under him and with a good inside lock of the leg trip him up.  In shoulder play he would otherwise stand small chance with one so much taller.  Doughty’s best plan would be to stand off him, a thing not possible in North Country wrestling.  In the West a special jacket of strong linen is worn for the taking of hitches, and Polkinghorne made the two boys pull out their shirts as the nearest approach to it.  All was arranged to the satisfaction of