"Come right down here!" challenged the bully, hoarsely. "We'll find out
about this."

Jack Benson hesitated. He did not care about fighting. Yet, seeing
that Jaggers meant to have a final encounter, Jack dropped nimbly
down to the gravel.

Dan Jaggers rushed at him, both fists up on guard, his whole attitude
more cautious since he had had a taste of the smaller youth's quality.
Jack was about two inches shorter and fully thirty pounds lighter, but
he made one think of a dancing master as he skipped away before the big
fellow's rushes.

"Stand still, won't ye, drat ye?" roared Dan, driving in another heavy
blow.

But Benson dodged, then came in under the bully's guard, landing a
stinging blow on the tip of his nose. Under punishment Dan let out a
noise resembling the bellow of an angry bull. Glowering, he stood
uncertain, for a moment, but Jack was tantalizingly just out of his
reach, smiling confidently. Then Jaggers leaped forward, hopeful of
winding his arms around this foe and crushing him into submission.
A second later, however, Dan fell backward, yelling with pain, for
Jack Benson had landed a left handed blow just under his opponent's
right eye, partly closing it. Dan bent over double, still groaning.

"Well, I swan!" said the astonished Jabez Holt, in the doorway of his
hotel.

Jack stood his ground a few moments, watching until he felt sure that