intensified.

"If you _will_ have it--_take_ it!" he exclaimed, and shot forth a blow
which one of the juvenile bystanders described as a "stinger on the
beak!"

The owner of the beak felt it so keenly, that he lost temper and made
another savage assault, which was met in much the same way, with this
difference, that his opponent delivered several more stingers on the
unfortunate beak, which after that would have been more correctly
described as a bulb.

Again the ex-pugilist paused for breath, and again the "hammytoor" stood
up before him, smiling more grimly than ever--panting a little, it is
true, but quite unscathed about the face, for he had guarded it with
great care although he had received some rather severe body blows.

Seeing this, Stoker descended to mean practices, and in his next assault
attempted, and with partial success, to hit below the belt. This roused
a spirit of indignation in Charlie, which gave strength to his arm and
vigour to his action. The next time Stoker paused for breath, Charlie--
as the juvenile bystander remarked--"went for him," planted a blow under
each eye, a third on his forehead, and a fourth on his chest with such
astounding rapidity and force that the man was driven up against the
wall with a crash that shook the whole edifice.

Stoker dropped and remained still. There were no seconds, no sponges or
calling of time at that encounter. It was altogether an informal
episode, and when Charlie saw his antagonist drop, he kneeled down
beside him with a feeling of anxiety lest he had killed him.

"My poor man," he said, "are you much hurt?"

"Oh! you've no need to fear for me," said Stoker recovering himself a
little, and sitting up--"but I throw up the sponge. Stoker's day is
over w'en 'e's knocked out o' time by a hammytoor, and Zook is free to
bile 'is pot unmorlested in futur'."

"Come, it was worth a fight to bring you to that state of mind, my man,"
said Charlie, laughing. "Here, two of you, help to take him down and
wash the blood off him; and I say, youngster," he added, pulling out his
purse and handing a sovereign to the juvenile bystander already
mentioned, "go out and buy sausages for the whole company."

The boy stared at the coin in his hand in mute surprise, while the rest
of the ring looked at each other with various expressions, for Charlie,
in the rebound of feeling caused by his opponent's sudden recovery and
submission, had totally forgotten his _role_