The Argosy, August 1914 — page 110: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

100 pew. He looked ugly an’ snappin’, but he didn’t scare Jack any. He bent his head and struck out with his leit. “Tt hit— oh, boy! Way th’ other feller grunted, I could see ‘twa’n't any love tap. Caught him in th’ ribs. I’d sooner do a day’s work than stop one like that. “And all th’ time, mind you, there was Jack grinnin’ like he was settin’ down to a clam chowder. Feller next me said ’twas his fightin’ face. Any- way, he seemed mighty pleased with himself. ‘ Jack, old boy,’ I told my- self, ‘ you didn’t grin like that time you ripped Buck Potter loose from th’ pound net.’ “Then I remembered ’twas just th’ way he looked when Buck picked on him about takin’ his skiff off th’ beach day he rowed to New Galilee an’ back. Sort of happy, you know, ’s if Jim Tarkis was cookin’ something for din- ner he liked particular. “By and by a bell rang an’ they went an’ sat down. Jack was laughin’ an’ talkin’ to the feller in his corner— Irishman name of Mac. I could see that much for all th’ feller standing in front of him wavin’ a towel up and down. ‘Then they jumped up an’ went at it again. “Seemed as if Jack was playin’ safe all this time. He was just jigglin’ th’ bait to let th’ other feller think he didn’t mean any harm. All of a sud- den he lets drive—cripes, what a larrup! It landed on th’ side of the champion’s face. I saw his head jerk back. “ He didn’t mean, though, for Jack to get away with anything like that. He drove out at th’ same time. He wiped Jack’s nose with a sort of grazin’ blow. It come to me they meant busi- ness, and that them boat-sponges on their hands could hurt. Jack’s nose ‘begun to bleed all over th’ deck. “’Twas then I first took notice of th’ feller sittin’ to starboard of me. He give a groan an’ says, says he: “<* This is awful—awful! be stopped at once!’ “Of course, I didn’t know what he It must THE ARGOSY. was talkin’ about, but I turned an’ give him a look. Stout party with a boiled shirt showin’ like the cockpit in a fresh painted yacht. He seemed pretty well worked up over something, but I was too busy then to pay notice. “T didn’t hear any more from him for quite some time. Four or five, mebbe six, rounds. Them two on th’ deck was givin’ and takin’ about as much of one as t’other. ‘Course, Jack didn’t mind about his nose bleed- in’. When it got bad he’d wipe it on th’ back of his feather pillow, and by and by it stopped. “The champion, that had started in so flerce, wasn’t quite so anxious now. I see Jack was playin’ him like you’d play a striped bass if you was out for th’ fun of the thing—givin’ him all th’ line he’d take, and then reelin’ up, and then givin’ him some more, to sort of tire him so’s’t you could use the gaft- hook. You know what I mean. ‘“ Prob’ly that wasn’t th’ way of it at all. Only that’s th’ way it looked t’ me. I guess th’ old admiral t’ star- board of me had th’ same idea; any- way, he had cheered up quite a good deal an’ was talkin’ to himself. : “All of a sudden Jack seems to make up his mind it was time t’ use th’ gaft. I thought he’d better play him. What d’you think? Before I knew what I was sayin’ I yells out— an’ all New York listenin’, mind you— I yells, ‘ Play him, Jack! Let him run with it!’ | ““Soon’s I heard my voice I knew I’d put my foot in it. I dropped back and tried to make myself small, same as a fiddler crab crawlin’ under a stun on th’ beach. I could feel th’ old gent in th’ next seat lookin’ at me, re- proachful. He didn’t say nothing just then, though. “That come a second later. For Jack, just ’s if he hadn’t heard me, lets drive an awful wallop. It come so fast I couldn’t see. Th’ champion was turned half ’round, and it caught him on th’ back of th’ head. He thumped down on th’ deck like a full mackerel COMMICLOO® S (C@