You can say the exact truth.

We were coming home across the moors; a boy interfered with us, and would not let us pass; we both pitched into him, and at last he got the worst of it, and we came home." "But what's the harm of saying that you and he fell, and he broke his leg ?" "A great deal of harm," Ned replied.

"If it was known that a boy's leg got broke in a fight with us it would be sure to come to Hathorn's ears; then there would be an inquiry and a row.

Like enough he would go up to see the boy and inquire all about it.

Then the men would suppose that we had broken our words, and the next time you and I go out on a fishing expedition there's no saying what mightn't happen to us.