d 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.

That very naturally ended our contest, and it was near to ending our
war-like neighbor as well. During this warfare, which was short or
long, I knew not, my associates, stunned and perhaps fearful, had sat
silent; at least, I neither heard nor saw them. But now, all at once,
over my shoulder I saw both Lafitte and L'Olonnois running in to my
assistance. Each held in hand a bared blade of the samurai, and had I
not shouted out to them to refrain, I have small doubt that in the
most piratical and unsamuraic fashion they mayhap would have
disemboweled my captive; for the old swords were keen as razors, and
my friends were as red of eyesight as myself.

"No! No!" I called to them, even as our victim writhed and roared in
terror. "Drop your weapons--that isn't fair." They obeyed,
shamefacedly and with regret, as I am convinced: for illusion with
them, at times, indeed overleaped the centuries, and they were back in
a time of blood: even as I was in a stone-age wrath for my own part.

"Come here, Jack," I ordered, "and you, too, Jimmy. Do you see how I
have him?"

They agreed. "It's a peach," said Lafitte. "Make him holler!"

"No," I replied, easing off the strain on the wrenched arm, "he has
already 'hollered.'"

"Yes, sure, 'nuff, 'nuff!----ye!" cried our captive, who, now, was in
mortal terror and much contrition, seeing both flesh and blood and
cold steel had