“You don’t git them there kites till you git me,” he challenged in a piping little voice.  “I ’m ‘Reddy’ Simpson, an’ you ain’t licked the fambly till you ’ve licked me.”

The gang cheered admiringly, and Reddy stripped a tattered jacket preparatory for the fray.

“Git ready,” he said to Joe.

Joe’s knuckles were torn, his nose was bleeding, his lip was cut and swollen, while his shirt had been ripped down from throat to waist.  Further, he was tired, and breathing hard.

“How many more are there of you Simpsons?” he asked.  “I ’ve got to get home, and if your family ’s much larger this thing is liable to keep on all night.”

“I ‘m the last an’ the best,” Reddy replied.  “You gits me an’ you gits the kites.  Sure.”

“All right,” Joe sighed.  “Come on.”

While the youngest of the clan lacked the strength and skill of his elders, he made up for it by a wildcat manner of fighting that taxed Joe severely.  Time and again it seemed to him that he must give in to the little whirlwind; but each time he pulled himself together and went doggedly on.  For he felt that he was fighting for principle, as his forefathers had fought for principle; also, it seemed to him that the honor of the Hill was at stake, and that he, as its representative, could do nothing less than his very best.

So he held on and managed to endure his opponent’s swift and continuous rushes till that young and less experienced person at last wore himself out with his own exertions, and from the ground confessed that, for the first time in its history, the “Simpson fambly was beat.”

CHAPTER IV

THE BITER BITTEN

But life in the Pit at best was a precarious affair, as the three Hill-dwellers were quickly to learn.  Before Joe could even possess himself of his kites, his astonished eyes were greeted with the spectacle of all his enemies, the fireman included, taking to their heels in wild flight.  As the little girls and urchins had melted away before the Simpson gang, so was melting away the Simpson gang before some new and correspondingly awe-inspiring group of predatory creatures.

Joe heard terrified cries of “Fish gang!” “Fish gang!” from those who fled, and he would have fled himself from this new danger, only he was breathless from his last encounter, and knew the impossibility of escaping whatever threatened.  Fred and Charley felt mighty longings to run away from a danger great enough to frighten the redoubtable Simpson gang and the valorous fireman, but they could not desert their comrade.

Dark forms broke into the vacant lot, some surrounding the boys and others dashing after the fugitives.  That the laggards were overtaken was evidenced by the cries of distress that went up, and when later the pursuers returned, they brought with them the luckless and snarling Brick, still clinging fast to the bundle of kites.