"It is both true and untrue."
"Explain."
"I will do so, though I was not present at the beginning of the trouble. Jarvis can better tell you more about that than I, and I do hope that what we say will not get our friend, Ignatz Brodsky, into trouble. He is a faithful friend and an honest, well-meaning boy."
"I will decide that when I hear the story. Jarvis, you may tell it."
"It was this way," began Bob. "I—we—had been suspecting that Ignatz was watching Kalinski and Foley ever since we were discharged from the mill. He took our dismissal very much at heart. He got hurt on the street, the other night, and said he had been kicked by a horse. I suspected that it was a two-legged horse that had kicked him. Last night, as I was walking along, I saw Ignatz. I followed him. Then, soon after, I saw Kalinski coming from the post-office. Both men stopped and then I began to understand what was in the wind. Well, sir, they sailed into each other without a word——"
"Who started the fight?" interrupted Mr. Keating.
"Both," answered Bob promptly.
"Go on."
"I didn't think it was my business to take a hand, though I wanted to. The little fellow held his own pretty well for a time, but the boss was too big and strong for him. Then Kalinski knocked the boy down, and began to kick him."
"The ruffian!" exclaimed Mr. Keating.