70 THE SWAN AND HER CREW. 



They watched the boy join a gang of other boys, and after some 

 conversation they took a number of tiny white eggs out of the 

 nest, and arranged them on the ground in a row. 



" By Jove, they are going to play ' hookey smash ' with them. 

 What heathens ! " said Frank. The boy who had brought the 

 eggs now took a stick and made a shot at one of the eggs, and 

 smash it went. Another boy took a stick and prepared to have 

 his turn. 



" I say, I can't stand this, " said Frank. " Let us make a 

 rush and rescue the eggs," and suiting the action to the word, 

 he ran forward, and with a well-applied shove of his foot to 

 the inviting target which a stooping boy presented to him, he 

 sent him rolling into the gutter. Jimmy picked up the nest 

 and eggs, and then the three found themselves like Horatius 

 and his two companions when they kept the bridge against 

 Lars Porsena and his host, "facing fearful odds" in the shape 

 of a dozen yelling street-boys. 



Frank was a big lad for his age, and he stood in such an 

 excellent boxing position, his blue eyes gleaming with such a 

 Berserker rage, and Jimmy and Dick backed him so manfully, 

 that their opponents quailed, and dared not attack them save 

 with foul language, of which they had a plentiful supply at 

 command. Seeing that their enemies deemed discretion the 

 better part of valour, our three heroes linked themselves arm 

 in arm. and marched home with their heads very high in 

 air, and with a conscious feeling of superiority. 



" What are you laughing at, Dick?" said Frank. 



" At the cool way in which you robbed those fellows of their 

 eggs. You had no right to do so. They will wonder why 

 you did it." 



" Let them wonder. I was so savage at their spoiling those 

 beautiful eggs in such a brutal manner. At the same time I 

 acknowledge that it wasn't rny business, no more than if it 

 were their own ha'pence they were smashing, but all the same 

 I feel that we have done a very meritorious action." 



They now found themselves at the quay-side, and they stopped 

 there some time, being much struck by the scene which pre- 

 sented itself to* them as they gazed out over Breydon Water. 

 The tide was flowing in rapidly, and Breydon was one vast 

 lake, at the further end of which, five miles away, the rivers 

 AVaveney and Yare joined it, and, at the end near Yarmouth, 



