'I'm not anybody's enemy,' I said, 'but I know murder when I see it done. And betrayal, too.'
The look in her eyes there for a minute--well, it wasn't what you'd rightly call pleasant; but then it was gone and she was all smiles. 'After the fight, Orlando? Win or lose? Will you come?
Pa wouldn't approve, not one bit, but if you'd come to see me ... I'm staying with the Appletons, down at the end of the street. They hadn't room for pa, too, so he won't be there.
Do come.'
'Well'--she was a mighty pretty girl--
'I'll see.'
My stomach felt queasy when I dismounted at the corral, for there were a sight of folks sitting atop the corral fence, which had a board nailed on it all the way around so's men could look at stock when buying from the corral.
Inside, the yard had been sprinkled and then rolled or tamped until it was hard-packed.
They'd set four posts in the ground and had ropes around them, running through holes in the posts.
No sooner had I got down than a great yell went up from the crowd, and there was Dun Caffrey getting out of a carriage. He wore a striped sweater, and when he peeled it off, he showed a set of the finest shoulders a man ever did see.
He was some taller than me, maybe about three inches, and had longer arms. He would weigh better than me, for I was down to two hundred and six, whilst he weighed two hundred and thirty, and carrying no fat.
Folks crowded around--men in buckboards and spring wagons, men a-horseback and afoot.
Caffrey was wearing a pair of dark blue tights and some fancy, special-made shoes for boxing or handball. I wore moccasins and black tights--^the last the Tinker rustled up for me.
'They've got a set of gloves,' Doc Halloran said, 'and they offer to fight either way, with or without.'
'Take 'em,' the Tinker advised. 'They protect your hands, and you'll hit even harder because of them. A lot of folks don't realize it, but a man hits harder with a bandaged hand and a glove than with a bare fist--m compact, better striking surface, and less danger of hurting your hands.'
When we agreed, they brought a pair of gloves over and I shoved my hand down inside.
These were three-ounce gloves, and when my hand was doubled into a fist it was hard as rock.
'We fight London Prize Ring rules,'
Doc explained. 'You fight until one man goes down, a knockdown, slip, or throw down, then you rest for one minute, and you toe the mark when you come up for each round, and the fight is to a finish.'
'He knows,' the Tinker said, dryly. He looked at me. 'I hope you haven't forgotten what I taught you during those months of travel.
You can use a rolling hip-lock to throw him, and if you get hold of him, pound him until you're stopped.'
Everybody had been taking notice of Caffrey, and when I slipped off my sweater, nobody was looking my way. I was brown as any Indian, and there were the scars of the old whip-cuts on my back and shoulders.
In spite of the difference in weight between us, I was better muscled and a little broader in the shoulders and quite a bit thicker through the chest.
Walton was to referee, and he made an announcement that he'd shoot the first man to come through the ropes or the first to try to tear down a post.
Around that ring those gamblers were gathered. Right off I could see that they'd outsmarted us, and the whole crowd against the ropes except right in my corner were his friends, and the men behind them were, too. My friends, and few enough of them there were, they were cut off, back some distance.
Suppose a whole rank started to move in on the ring? What would Walton do then?
Time was called and we walked out to toe the mark, and as soon as my toe touched it, Caffrey hit me. He hit me a straight left to the face, and it landed hard. I sprang at him, punching with both hands, and he moved around me like a cooper around a barrel. He hit me three times in the face without my landing a blow.
The crowd began to yell, and he came at me again, but this time I ducked my head against his chest and managed to hit him twice, short blows in the belly, before he put a headlock on me and threw me to my knees, ending the round.
When I walked back to my corner and sat on Halloran's knee, my lip was puffed from a blow, and there was a knot on my cheekbone.
I'll give it to him. He could punch.
'Stay close to him,' the Tinker whispered.
'Keep your hands higher and your elbows in. Work on his body when you get the chance.'
When time was called, Caffrey rushed from his corner and began punching with both hands. He hit me several times, almighty hard, but I got my head down against his chest again and hooked both hands hard to the belly. He tried to push me off then, but I stepped in fast and back-heeled him and he went down hard, ending the round.
As we went on it was nip and tuck, both of us punching hard. He was fast, and he was in good shape, and he moved well. The first six rounds were gone in fourteen minutes, but the seventh round lasted five minutes all by itself.
He'd pounded me about the head, but I wasn't really hurt. He'd drawn first blood --there was a trickle of it from my lip that had been cut against my teeth. He was unmarked, and the betting had gone up to three to one on Caffrey.
Opposite us a window had gone up in the second story of a house, and I could see a couple of women there, watching the fight. Another window in that same house was open, too, but nobody watched from it.
Round eight came up and I went out fast, slipped a left lead for my head and smashed him in the ribs. It taken his wind, and it shook him up. It was my first hard punch of the fight, and I think it surprised him. He backed off, studying me, and I stalked him. I made awkwardly as if to throw my right and he stepped in, hitting hard with his right.
My left arm was bent at the elbow, first at shoulder level, elbow near the hip, and I'd moved my left shoulder and hip over almost to the center line, while leaving my fist cocked where it was. As Caffrey threw that right, I let go with my left, letting it whip around, thrown by the tension built up by turning my shoulder forward and the weight behind it.
The blow struck high on his cheekbone and knocked him across the ring into the ropes. Eager hands shoved him back, but I was moving in on him and I struck him again with my left fist, but I was too eager with my right, and missed. He clinched and back-heeled me into the dirt, falling atop me and jerking his knee into my groin.
Throwing him off, I came up fast and mad, and hurt by that knee. He cocked his fist, and then Walton stepped in and stopped the round.
Twice after that he drove me into the ropes and once I was hit from outside the ropes, hit hard just above the kidney. I turned to complain and he knocked me down ... a clean knock-down.
The crowd was mad now. Arguments were starting all about us, and there were several fights going close to the ring, and one back beyond it. Once, wrestling in a clinch, I thought I saw movement at that empty window, and made up my mind to speak to Doc about it.
It was bloody fighting now. Moving in, I smashed him in the mouth with a right that split his lip and started the blood flowing. In a clinch he said hoarsely, 'I'm going to kill you, Sackett!
Right here in this ring, I'm going to kill you!'
'I broke your bones once,' I replied, 'and I'll do it again!'
Catching his left arm under mine, I threw him off balance and hit him twice in the belly before I let go. We moved together, punching with both hands, and outside the ropes the crowd was shouting and brawling. Nothing could be heard above the din.
Deliberately, I still pounded away at his body, but his stomach and ribs were like rock. He cut a slit above my eye and knocked me into the ropes, and there someone struck me a stunning blow over the back of the head with something like a blackjack or sandbag.
Even as I fell, Caffrey rushed at me and struck me twice in the face. I fell forward, and was scarcely conscious as the Tinker and Doc dragged me to my corner. Yet when the bell rang I was on my feet.
Now he started after me, and, still feeling the effects of the blow over the head, I could not get myself together. My punches were poorly timed and lacked force, and Caffrey rushed at me, pounding away with both hands. Getting in close, I seized him bodily, lifted him clear of the ground, and slammed him down with such force that the wind was knocked from him.
