Excerpt from Masters of Men: A Romance of the New Navy A boy of fifteen was being vigorously cuffed and kicked by a larger boy, and a black-haired girl was speeding toward them on the sidewalk, when from across the street came another boy - red-haired and freckled - who jumped puddles and arrived on the scene coincident with the girl. "Let my brother alone, you - you - you mean old thing," she cried as, with flashing eyes and fingers working nervously, she confronted the pair. "Ah, gwan," answered the cuffer, with a quick, comprehensive glance at the working fingers and sharp nails; "he hit me wid a rock." "He hit me first," screamed the victim. He was a pink-cheeked boy in knickerbockers - the type of boy that is seldom punished at home. "Take some one your own size," said the red-haired boy. "Go chase yourself, Dick Halpin; this ain't your funeral." "Let up - drop it - let him go!" "Make him stop. Oh, please make him stop," wailed the girl, changing front at the prospect of a champion. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.