"Do not go, Myles," cried Gascoyne, "he is a villain and atraitor, and would betray thee to thy death. I saw him when hefirst gat from bed hide a knife in his doublet.""Thou liest!" said Blunt. "I swear, by my faith, I be barehandedas ye see me! Thy friend accuses me, Myles Falworth, because heknoweth thou art afraid of me.""There thou liest most vilely!" exclaimed Myles. "Swear that thouhast no knife, and I will meet thee.""Hast thou not heard me say that I have no knife?" said Blunt.
"What more wouldst thou have?"
"Then I will meet thee halfway," said Myles.
Gascoyne caught him by the sleeve, and would have withheld him,assuring him that he had seen the bachelor conceal a knife. ButMyles, hot for the fight, broke away from his friend withoutlistening to him.
As the two advanced steadily towards one another a breathlesssilence fell upon the dormitory in sharp contrast to the uproarand confusion that had filled it a moment before. The lads,standing some upon benches, some upon beds, all watched withbreathless interest the meeting of the two champions.
As they approached one another they stopped and stood for amoment a little apart, glaring the one upon the other. Theyseemed ill enough matched; Blunt was fully half a head tallerthan Myles, and was thick-set and close-knit in young manhood.
Nothing but Myles's undaunted pluck could have led him to dare toface an enemy so much older and stouter than himself.
The pause was only for a moment. They who looked saw Blunt slidehis hand furtively towards his bosom. Myles saw too, and in theflash of an instant knew what the gesture meant, and sprang uponthe other before the hand could grasp what it sought. As heclutched his enemy he felt what he had in that instant expectedto feel--the handle of a dagger. The next moment he cried, in aloud voice: "Oh, thou villain! Help, Gascoyne! He hath a knifeunder his doublet!"In answer to his cry for help, Myles's friends started to hisaid. But the bachelors shouted, "Stand back and let them fight itout alone, else we will knife ye too." And as they spoke, some ofthem leaped from the benches whereon they stood, drawing theirknives and flourishing them.
For just a few seconds Myles's friends stood cowed, and in thosefew seconds the fight came to an end with a suddenness unexpectedto all.
A struggle fierce and silent followed between the two; Bluntstriving to draw his knife, and Myles, with the energy ofdespair, holding him tightly by the wrist. It was in vain theelder lad writhed and twisted; he was strong enough to overbearMyles, but still was not able to clutch the haft of his knife.
"Thou shalt not draw it!" gasped Myles at last. "Thou shalt notstab me!"Then again some of his friends started forward to his aid, butthey were not needed, for before they came, the fight was over.
Blunt, finding that he was not able to draw the weapon, suddenlyceased his endeavors, and flung his arms around Myles, trying tobear him down upon the ground, and in that moment his battle waslost.
In an instant--so quick, so sudden, so unexpected that no onecould see how it happened-- his feet were whirled away from underhim, he spun with flying arms across Myles's loins, and pitchedwith a thud upon the stone pavement, where he lay still,motionless, while Myles, his face white with passion and his eyesgleaming, stood glaring around like a young wild-boar beset bythe dogs.
The next moment the silence was broken, and the uproar brokeforth with redoubled violence. The bachelors, leaping from thebenches, came hurrying forward on one side, and Myles's friendsfrom the other.
"Thou shalt smart for this, Falworth," said one of the olderlads. " Belike thou hast slain him!"Myles turned upon the speaker like a flash, and with such apassion of fury in his face that the other, a fellow nearly ahead taller than he, shrank back, cowed in spite of himself. ThenGascoyne came and laid his hand on his friend's shoulder,"Who touches me?" cried Myles, hoarsely, turning sharply uponhim; and then, seeing who it was, "Oh, Francis, they would ha'
killed me!"
"Come away, Myles," said Gascoyne; "thou knowest not what thoudoest; thou art mad; come away. What if thou hadst killed him?"The words called Myles somewhat to himself. "I care not!" saidhe, but sullenly and not passionately, and then he sufferedGascoyne and Wilkes to lead him away.
Meantime Blunt's friends had turned him over, and, after feelinghis temples, his wrist, and his heart, bore him away to a benchat the far end of the room. There they fell to chafing his handsand sprinkling water in his face, a crowd of the others gatheringabout. Blunt was hidden from Myles by those who stood around, andthe lad listened to the broken talk that filled the room with itsconfusion, his anxiety growing keener as he became cooler. But atlast, with a heartfelt joy, he gathered from the confused buzz ofwords that the other lad had opened his eyes and, after a while,he saw him sit up, leaning his head upon the shoulder of one ofhis fellow-bachelors, white and faint and sick as death.
"Thank Heaven that thou didst not kill him!" said Edmund Wilkes, who had been standing with the crowd looking on at the efforts ofBlunt's friends to revive him, and who had now come and sat downupon the bed not far from Myles.
"Aye," said Myles, gruffly, "I do thank Heaven for that."
