been a mild battle, a showy thing of
pretty footwork and flashy boxing. But it hadn't been harmful to either
of them. Holliday, it appeared, had been quite content to let it go
along that way from round to round, though it was the style of fighting
best suited to his opponent. And he had proved himself faster at it,
cleverer, than Perry had expected.

Yet it was not Holliday's cleverness, but his bounding, surging strength
which compelled his thoughts. Strength like that, which tossed him like
a chip in the clinches, was no new thing to him. He'd often been handled
that way, with the same ease, by men heavier than himself,--by Jack
English, for example. And Holliday was heavier; he knew that he had
given away pounds in the weighing in; that there had been crookedness at
the scales, but he hadn't tried to prove it. Yet Holliday was stronger
even than Jack English, unbelievably stronger. And Perry knew now that
he was about to test that strength to the uttermost. Holliday had romped
with the roughness of a great puppy; now it was going to be different.
It was going to be the destruction-rush of a young bull.

English too felt what was coming, just as he did; just as did the whole
quiet house. English wasn't trying hard to hide his anxiety.

"He's strong," he was saying. "Boy, he's strong! Keep away from
him--keep away from him all you can. For if he ever backs you into a
corner he's going to knock you dead!"

Perry nodded. He meant to, if he could. He was going to try to keep
away. And on the other side of the ring Holliday was talking easily out
of the corner of his mouth.

"This guy's no set-up," he was saying. "He's faster than a fool. But
kin he hit--that's what I'm wondering. Kin he hit? An' that's what I'm
going to find out."

And then the bell, and the whole house leaning forward.

They came slowly from their corners, Holliday bull-necked, compact, a
grinning menace, Perry lighter, whiter, sober. The first minute of that
round was a repetition of all those that had gone before; lightning
feints, nimble dancing steps, the cautious trickery of antagonists
feeling each other out.

And yet the house, contrary to custom, did not grow impatient of such
tactics and call loudly for more damaging effort. It waited. A minute
and a half passed--two minutes--and they were going faster--faster. And
then Holliday, grinning into Perry's face, winked broadly and swung
wildly with his right. Perry