CHAPTER III.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 418, 9 November 1889, Page 3

CHAPTER 111.

1 Iv that Will Mallory was my boy he would not be going so much to them steeplechases and football matches and ball clubs.' This was the remark of old Mr Williston, a wellpreserved army contractor, who lived in a largo house with six lonic pillars, a little beyond the Malloiy's as you drive out of town on the Plainfield Road. Similar suggestions were made to Mr? j Mallory at the sewing society, and by one | and another visitor. The ' mild police 'of j the neighbourhood was, indeed, taken with a good deal of surprise at Will's long absence from school. It cut across the general habit of society, and society, therefore, condemned it in its mild way. That to this rebellion against its unwritten law, Will should add, with his father's consent, legular attendance at the practice games and match games, surprised the! ' mild police,' and it expressed itself ac-j cordingly. It did not do much about it., It is not always the habit of a police, mild or otherwise, to do much ; but it kept up a great deal of thinking and talking. But one October night, Will and his brothers had an opportunity to put the boot on the other leg ; and for the rest of the autumn, the ' mild police' had nothing to say unfavourable to athletic exercises. Liutle Jacob Mallory was sent to bed, unwillingly enough, about half-past eight o'clock. His mother was reading 'The Black Airow' aloud to the older boys. It was a moonlight night, and before Jacob went to bed he stood looking out of the south' window of his room. In a movement with a certain impetuosity which belonged to the family, he dashed through the passage and downstairs to the sittingroom, and broke up ' The Black Anow,' with the cry; 'There are two men on the piazza *f old Williston's house ! I can see them from mv window !' ' It is the black burglars,' cried Will, and at the instant he and John and his two older brothers dashed out at the front door. Thsse brothers had, fortunately, come over from Elmerville, where they were at work, to spend Saturday afternoon and Sunday at home. ' You two tuke the turnpike,' said Will, 'and David and I will run on this side. You can head them if they try the back way.' So he led across his father's garden, cleared the hedge with that running jump which we have seen before, and advanced boldly towards old Williston's piazza. Bub Williston's lawn was a wide one, and before he had crossed a greater part of it, he had the mortification i ofsceing that the bwo men had caught bhe alarm. They slid down the posts of the piaz/a, and, without regard to Mrs Williston's roses, took the shortest cut for the country road. Will screamed to his Uo brothers, whom he had sent to the rear of the house, and who might not see the manoeuvre of the flying enemy. By changing his own brack across the lawn he gained on the two men, who were, however, a good hundred yards in tho advance. His older brother followed him, not so well trained as he, and indeed not s=o well dressed for running ; but he made a good second. The two men who wero escaping fumbled a little at Williston's garden wall ; but fear gave them speed, and they stumbled over ib somehow, They losb a parb of bheir distance from Will as he cut off a corner of tho lawn. Ho climbed over the wall easier than they, and then had them for a square stern chase on the country road. Harry behind him made good speed, and now he could hear the shouts of his other brothers as they regained bhe distance they had lost, and crossed the lawn last of all. The country road is perfectly level, and as it happened the moon lay co as to shine on both side?, unshadowed by the hedges or trees in the gardens. Will saw in a minute thab he was gaining. He knew that he could run ab bhat rate for half an hour, and he did not think from their ap pearance that the two fugitives could. The man in tho rear paused a moment and dropped his coat. But will did not stop for that, and bade Harry pass it. At tho moment he passed ib himself, the man sbopped, turned, and aimed a pistol, crying, 'I will fire. : Will wasted no words, the man tired and turned again. He now put his revolver on his shoulder and fired without aim. Ib was the worst thing he could have done. He empbied his barrels uselessly, and roused the neighbourhood ; for everyone was awake 30 early on that lovely Ocbober evening. So was ib bhat when he and his parbner burned for shelter into the Maunders place, where in the close shrubbery they could have dodged almost any pursuit, they met Hannibal the stout coachman, who with a view of cheap glory, had seized Mr Maunders' revolver from bhe gun-room when he heard the shots, and gone out under the portecochere. The leading fugitive turned dis-. mayed, and the man with the empty revolver sbo'jd still. Will paused nob an insbant. Resolute and silent h» came on the poor fellow like a hundred pound cannon shot, flung him from his feet, and fell with him on the ground. At that instant Hartnir bal stepped boldly down. * Here's do pistol, Master Will. Keerful now. He's loaded, 1 With the pistol Will was master of bhe situation. The cries of his brothers and

their fasb-falling steps came nearer and nearer. ' Lie where you are,' cried the resolute boy, ' and stretch out both hands, and stand still, or I'll fire.' They were both novices at their business. Both were wholly 'blown' with running. A legion of Maundev's women were on the piazza sounding watchmen's rattles, and ringing police alarms. In a' minute more the other Mallory boys joined Harry, who was already on the ground. Thero was no, lying the hands of the, prisoners, though clothes linos were produced by Hannibal for that purpose. The triumphant boys bade them still hold' up their hands and in this manner, ,they marched them, Hannibal and Mr Lewis Jones joining the procession, to the basement of the signal' tower of the railroad. Here they were tockod in till two policemen could be tDrought from a station a mile away. The next day they were tried and sentenced to three years each in the House of Correc-j tion. So it was that the neighbours ceased to h'nd fault with the boys' athletic exercise.