But
just as the boys were almost at the end of their strength there was an
effective interruption. It was time, for both combatants were heavily
punished. They had not been so ill-matched as one might at first sight
have suspected. George was the stronger and harder fellow, but Matthew
had the advantage in the matter of height, and more particularly in
length of arm, which enabled him to get in a blow when his opponent's
fell short; though the less robust of the two he had as much pluck as
pride, and would have fought on to the last gasp.
The sound of clattering hoofs was heard, and, from opposite quarters,
two horsemen dashed up. They were Mr. Blackett and the elder Fairburn.
CHAPTER III
THE FIRE AT BINFIELD TOWERS
The fight stopped even more suddenly than it had begun, and the two
combatants stood away from each other, with hanging heads but with
fists still clenched.
Fairburn took a glance around on the destruction, a thing he was able
to do by the glare from some burning wreckage which had now got well
into a blaze. Then his eyes wandered down to the two boys with their
bruised and bleeding countenances, and finally up into Mr. Blackett's
face.
"So this is the kind of thing your Tory and your Jacobite is capable
of!" he remarked with stinging scorn to his richer rival.
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