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Code Schofield, from his perch on the Boughton roof-tree, looked

down again to where he had last seen his mother. Once more he

distinguished the tall figure with its white face looking

anxiously up at him, and he waved his hand reassuringly. Then his

eye was caught by two other figures that lurked in the first

shadows farther up the King's Road. A moment later he made sure

of their identity.

They were Nellie Tanner and Nat Burns.

For years there had been a dislike between the Burnses and the

Schofields. Old Jasper Schofield, Code's father, and Michael

Burns had become enemies over the same girl a quarter of a

century before, and the breach had never been healed. Old Captain

Jasper had won, but he had never forgotten, and Michael had never

forgiven.

Quite unconsciously the feud had been passed on to the children

of both (for Michael had married within a few years), and from

school-days Code and Nat had been the leaders of rival gangs.