I only looked at him, and made no answer, feeling none due. He came
out into the open, followed by a nondescript dog, which had the lack
of decency--and also of discretion--to attack my dog Partial with no
parley or preliminary. I wot not of what stock Partial came, but
somewhere in his ancestry must have been stark fighting strain. Mutely
and sternly, as became a gentleman, he joined issue; and so well had
he learned the art of war that in the space of a few moments, in spite
of the loud outcry of the owner of the invading cur, he had him on his
back in a throat grip which was the end of the battle and bade fair
soon to be the end of the enemy.
The man who had accosted us caught up a club and made toward Partial
with intent to kill him. Then, indeed, we all sprang into action. In
two strides I was before him.
"Drop that!" I said to him quickly, but I hope not angrily. "Call him
off, Jack!" I cried to Lafitte at the same time.
The sound of conflict ceased as Partial was persuaded to release his
fallen foe, and the latter disappeared, with more wisdom as to
attacking a band of pirates. His owner, however, was not so easily
daunted. He still advanced toward Partial, and as I still intervened,
he made a vicious side blow at me with his club.
It all happened, almost, in the twinkling of an eye. Here, then, was
an adventure, and before the end of our second day!
There was not time to learn or to ask the reason for this man's
animosity toward us, and, indeed, no thought of that came to my mind.
A man may lay tongue to one--within certain bounds--and one will only
walk away from him; but the touch of another man's hand or weapon is
quite another matter. That arouses the unthinking blood, and follows
then, no matter the issue, the gaudium certaminis, with no care as
to odds or evens. Wherefore, even as the club whizzed by to my side
step, I came back from the other foot and smote the hostile stranger
on the side of the neck so stiffly that he faltered and almost
dropped. Then seeing that I was so much lighter than himself and
perhaps valuing himself against me purely on a basis of avoirdupois,
pound for pound, he gathered and came at me, roaring out blasphemy and
obscenity which I had rather Lafitte and L'Olonnois had not heard.
I had not often fought in fact, but knew that, sometimes, a gentleman
must fight. What astonished me now was the fact that fighting
contained no manner of repugnance to me. With a certain joy I met my
foe, circled with him, exchanged blows with him--unequally it is true,
for I was cool as though trying a cause at law, and he was very angry:
so that he got most of my leads, and I but few of his, albeit jarring
me enough to make my ears sing and my eyes blur somewhat, although of
pain I was no more conscious than a fighting dog. The turf was soft
underfoot, and the space wide, so that we fought very happily and
comfortably over perhaps a hundred feet of country, first one and then
the other coming in; until at last I had him so well blown that he
stood, and I knew we must now end it toe to toe. I bethought me of a
trick of my old boxing teacher, and stood before him with arms curved
wide apart, inviting him to come into what seemed an opening. He
rushed, and my left fist caught him on the neck. He straightened to
finish me, but I stooped and brought my right in a round-arm blow,
full and hard into the small of his back and at one side. It sickened
him, and before he could rally, I stepped behind him, and having no
ethics save the necessity of subduing him, I caught up his arm by the
wrist, and slipping under it with my shoulder, pulled it down till he
howled: a trick, only one of very many, which Hiroshimi patiently had
taught me.