Page:Arthur Stringer-The Loom of Destiny.djvu/121

The Essentials of Aristocracy Course," said another boy. "There's Jim, now, skart to come over!"

Deliciously it dawned on him. It was a revelation to the new boy. Jim was skulking up the side of the school yard, with all the old, insolent air of aggression gone from his limping gait. Then he had licked him after all! The little narrow chest of the new boy swelled with pride.

But this was by no means the end of the battle. From that day the struggle for supremacy merely took on another form. The defeated boy realised that a physical encounter was entirely out of the question. So the warfare for relative rank, since there was no other way to fight it out, became a battle of tongues.

Jimmie Carson told the girls of the school that Johnnie Armstrong wore his Aunt Martha's stockings. Johnnie writhed in spirit, for he knew this was sadly true. But he gave his enemy the lie, and openly declared that Jimmie Carson's father had been put in jail for stealing a horse. This, too, was equally true. But Jimmie retorted by 109