Part 30 (2/2)
”When?”
”Just now. Two of the boys came to me to ask if I would fight him.”
”What did you say?”
”I told them I wouldn't do it, unless he forced me to do so in self-defense, and that then I'd use a marline spike on him.”
Sam shook his head thoughtfully.
”It doesn't seem to surprise you any,” complained Dan.
”No, I can't say that it does. I had suspected something of the sort was in the wind. Are you afraid of him, Dan?”
”Afraid of him?”
”Yes.”
”No, I am not afraid of him,” answered the lad in a quiet voice. ”But I have had my little lesson through your fate, you know. Bread and water don't agree with my digestive organs. Why, what do you think would happen to me were I to get mixed up in that sort of a row?”
”Nothing.”
”What do you mean?”
”I hear that when men on board these s.h.i.+ps have a misunderstanding, they are permitted to fight it out under proper conditions.”
”They do?”
”Yes. But the battles, I have heard, don't amount to much. The fighters are provided with boxing gloves and the fight is more of a boxing match than a battle. When it has gone far enough it is stopped, the winner being the one who has scored the most points. One of the men was telling me about it. It isn't very different from the boxing matches you used to take part in when we were in the High School, is it?” suggested Sam.
”No,” answered Dan somewhat doubtfully. ”But this Kester is a loafer, and I do not like to trust him. I am not timid, but I want to win promotion in the service.”
”The others will see that you have fair play.”
”You advise me to meet him then?” questioned Dan.
”Of course I do. I wish he had challenged me to fight him. I owe him one.”
”I am surprised at you, Sam. You forget you have recently been in trouble for fighting and now you turn around and urge me to go in for a bout with a fellow who intends to knock my head off if he is able to do it.”
”Not a fight, a boxing match, Dynie,” grinned Sam.
Dan laughed.
”A nice gentlemanly, hand-shaking sort of a bout, eh? Well I'll see.”
”Are you going to meet him?”
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