ng-box on the instant, and returned Micky's
blow with such good effect that the young bully staggered back, and
would have fallen, if he had not been propped up by his confederate,
Limpy Jim.

"Go in, Micky!" shouted the latter, who was rather a coward on his
own account, but liked to see others fight. "Polish him off, that's
a good feller."

Micky was now boiling over with rage and fury, and required no
urging. He was fully determined to make a terrible example of poor
Dick. He threw himself upon him, and strove to bear him to the
ground; but Dick, avoiding a close hug, in which he might possibly
have got the worst of it, by an adroit movement, tripped up his
antagonist, and stretched him on the side walk.

"Hit him, Jim!" exclaimed Micky, furiously.

Limpy Jim did not seem inclined to obey orders. There was a quiet
strength and coolness about Dick, which alarmed him. He preferred
that Micky should incur all the risks of battle, and accordingly set
himself to raising his fallen comrade.

"Come, Micky," said Dick, quietly, "you'd better give it up. I
wouldn't have touched you if you hadn't hit me first. I don't want
to fight. It's low business."

"You're afraid of hurtin' your clo'es," said Micky, with a sneer.

"Maybe I am," said Dick. "I hope I haven't hurt yours."

Micky's answer to this was another attack, as violent and impetuous
as the first. But his fury was in the way. He struck wildly, not
measuring his blows, and Dick had no difficulty in turning aside, so
that his antagonist's blow fell upon the empty air, and his momentum
was such that he nearly fell forward headlong. Dick might readily
have taken advantage of his unsteadiness, and knocked him down; but
he was not vindictive, and chose to act on the defensive, except
when he could not avoid it.

Recovering himself, Micky saw that Dick was a more formidable
antagonist than he had supposed, and was meditating another assault,
better planned, which by its impetuosity might bear our hero to the
ground. But there was an unlooked-for interference.

"Look out for the 'copp,'" said Jim, in a low voice.

Micky turned round and saw a tall policeman heading towards him, and
thought it might be prudent to suspend hostilities. He accordingly
picked up his black-box, and, hitching up his pants, walked off,
attended by Limpy Jim.

"What's that chap been doing?" asked the policeman of Dick.

"He was amoosin' himself by pitchin' into me," replied Dick.

"W