When they came back from their bathe the man had gone, but the boy was still there — and he had actually sat himself down in George’s hole.

“Get out,” said George, shortly, her temper rising at once. “That’s my hole, and you jolly well know it.”

“Findings keepings,” said the boy, in a curious sing-song voice. “It’s my hole now.”

George bent down and pulled the boy roughly out of the hole. He was up in a trice, his fists clenched. George clenched hers, too.

Dick came up at a run. “Now, George — if there’s any fighting to be done, I’ll do it,” he said. He turned to the scowling boy. “Clear off! We don’t want you here!”

The boy hit out with his right fist and caught Dick unexpectedly on the jawbone. Dick looked astounded. He hit out, too, and sent the tousle-headed boy flying.

“Yah, coward!” said the boy, holding his chin tenderly. “Hitting someone smaller than yourself! I’ll fight that first boy, but I won’t fight you.”

“You can’t fight him,” said Dick, “He’s a girl. You can’t fight girls — and girls oughtn’t to fight, anyway.”

“Ses you!” said the dirty little ragamuffin, standing up and doubling his fists again. “Well, you look here — I’m a girl, too — so I can fight her all right, can’t I?”

George and the ragamuffin stood scowling at one another, each with fists clenched. They looked so astonishingly alike, with their short, curly hair, brown freckled faces and fierce expressions that Julian suddenly roared with laughter. He pushed them firmly apart.

“Fighting forbidden!” he said. He turned to the ragamuffin. “Clear off!” he ordered. “Do you hear me? Go on — off with you!”

The gipsy-like girl stared at him. Then she suddenly burst into tears and ran off howling.

“She’s a girl all right,” said Dick, grinning at the howls. “She’s got some spunk though, facing up to me like that. Well, that’s the last we’ll see of her!”

But he was wrong. It wasn’t!

Chapter Three

Face at the window

The five curled up in their holes once more. Dick felt his jaw-bone. “That ragamuffin of a girl gave me a good bang,” he said, half-admiringly. “Little demon, isn’t she! A bit of live wire!”

“I can’t see why Julian wouldn’t let me have a go at her,” said George sulkily. “It was my hole she sat in — she meant to be annoying! How dare she?”

“Girls can’t go about fighting,” said Dick. “Don’t be an ass, George. I know you make out you’re as good as a boy, and you dress like a boy and climb trees as well as I can — but it’s really time you gave up thinking you’re as good as a boy.”

This sort of speech didn’t please George at all. “Well, anyway, I don’t burst into howls if I’m beaten,” she said, turning her back on Dick.