or him.

He attempted to pass but Lenning put out his foot, and had Jerry not
stopped he would have been tripped up.

"Let me pass," said he, sharply, but instead of complying, Lenning took a
stand in front of him and hit the youth on the shoulder.

"I said I'd git square," he hissed, savagely. "If yer ain't afraid, stand
up and fight."

"I'm not afraid," replied Jerry, and pushed him up against the wall.

Without delay a rough-and-tumble fight ensued.

"Give it to him, Dick!"

"Do the hayseed up!"

"Knock him into the middle of next week!"

These and a dozen other cries arose on the air, and the crowd kept
increasing until fully a hundred spectators surrounded the pair.

Dick Lanning had caught Jerry unfairly, but the youth soon managed to
shake him off, and, hauling back, gave him a clean blow on the end of his
unusually long nose, which caused the blood to spurt from that organ in a
stream.

"He's tapped Dick's nose!"

"My! wasn't that a blow, though!"

"The country lad is game!"

Wild with rage, Dick Lanning endeavored to close in again. Jerry stopped
the movement this time by a blow on the chest which sent him staggering
back several feet into the crowd.

"What's the matter, Dick?"

"Don't let him use you like that."

"I'll fix him!" howled the bully, and rushed at our hero a third time.

Again he hit Jerry, this time in the chin. But our hero's blood was now
up, and, calculating well, he struck a square blow in the left eye that
knocked the bully flat.

"Dick is knocked out!"

"That country jay is a corker!"

"Git up, Dick. Yer eye is turnin' all black!"

"Better let him go, he's too much for you!"

Dick Lanning was slow in coming to the front. The eye was not only black,
but it was closing rapidly.

"He's got a stone in his fist--he don't fight fair," he growled to his
friends.

"I have nothing in my fist," retorted Jerry. "If he wants anymore, I fancy
I can accommodate him, although I don't care to fight."

Dick Lanning was uneasy. He glanced toward his friends and passed a signal
to one of his cronies.

"Police! skip!" cried the crony. "Come on, Dick, you don't want to git
caught!"

And he dragged Dick Lanning away, while the crowd scattered like magic. No
policeman was in sight, nor did any appear. It was only a ruse to retire
without acknowledging defeat.

But that fight taught Dick Lanning a severe lesson. He still remained down
upon the young oarsman, but in the futur