police.

Nor had he ever let a man speak to him, as the mate had
spoken, and get away with it, and so, while he did not act as
quickly as would have been his wont had his brain been clear,
he did act; but the interval of time had led the mate into an
erroneous conception of its cause, and into a further rash
show of authority, and had thrown him off his guard as well.

"What you need," said the mate, advancing toward Billy,
"is a bash on the beezer. It'll help you remember that you
ain't nothin' but a dirty damn landlubber, an' when your
betters come around you'll--"

But what Billy would have done in the presence of his
betters remained stillborn in the mate's imagination in the
face of what Billy really did do to his better as that worthy
swung a sudden, vicious blow at the mucker's face.

Billy Byrne had not been scrapping with third- and fourth-
rate heavies, and sparring with real, live ones for nothing.
The mate's fist whistled through empty air; the blear-eyed
hunk of clay that had seemed such easy prey to him was
metamorphosed on the instant into an alert, catlike bundle
of steel sinews, and Billy Byrne swung that awful right with
the pile-driver weight, that even The Big Smoke himself had
acknowledged respect for, straight to the short ribs of his
antagonist.

With a screech of surprise and pain the mate crumpled in