that he was but a child in the hands of a really good
boxer, while it humiliated him, was extremely useful. A lesson of this
kind is sure to have an effect, good or bad. Among some it sours the
temper, produces an active hatred of the person who gave it, and renders
a lad savage and morose. On the other hand, among more generous natures
it has an opposite effect. Thinking matters over, a lad will feel that
he has been going in the wrong direction, that he has been puffed up
with an exaggerated idea of his own powers, and he will determine to get
into a better groove, and to break himself of his faults.

Condor belonged to the latter class. As he lay in bed he saw clearly
that he had made a great mistake, that his successes had been won simply
because those he licked were less skilled or strong than himself, and
that, in point of fact, instead of being, as he believed, a good boxer,
he knew next to nothing about it.

Edgar had, after the first day, gone in regularly to have a chat with
him. He had been somewhat doubtful as to how his advances would be
received, but had determined to do his best to become friends with
Condor, whom he felt, rather remorsefully, he had punished terribly
severely.

"I hope, Condor," he said the first time he entered, "that you will
believe that I have come in because I am really sorry that you have been
hurt so much, and not from any idea of triumphing over you. It was only
natural that I should have got the best of it. I knew beforehand that I
was sure to do so. I learned boxing for over two years from some of the
best light-weight fighters in London. I worked very hard, and at the end
of that time, except that I was of course their inferior in strength, I
could hold my own very fairly with them. That was more than a year ago,
and since then I have gained a lot in height, in length of reach, and
in strength, so you really need not feel mortified that you were so
easily beaten, because I consider that if you had been twice as strong
as you are, and four or five years older, it would have come to the same
thing. A man who can box only in what you may call a rough-and-ready way
has practically no chance whatever with a really scientific pugilist,
which I may say I am. I hope you bear me no malice, and that we shall be
friends in future."

"I hope so too, Blagrove. I feel that I deserve what I have got, and it
will be a lesson that I shall not forget. You have taken me down a great
many peg