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 looks me over with a sneer, whilst Rita backs away kind of frightened.

"Well, well, well!" says Daniels, after a strained second, "Another admirer, eh?" He takes my check, tears it up and throws it in my face. "Go away, you little rat!" he says, curlin' his lip. "I—"

Then I let him have it—a right swing, flush on the chin!

Daniels staggered back against the tree, and Rita give a faint scream, I had no chance with Daniels, and I knew I had no chance with him when I socked him. He'd already stood off Kid Roberts, and he was certainly too big and too good for me to cope with. I gambled everything on that first wallop stoppin' him. It didn't, and from then on I was just a catcher. He could of knocked me off at any time with a punch, but he didn't want to do that. Oh no—with a cold, sneerin' grin on his pan he just stood off and cut me to ribbons with slashin' hooks and jabs, carefully avoidin' landin' in a vital spot. In less than three minutes I'm bleedin' like a stuck pig, one eye is closed tight, and I'm flounderin' around like a drunk. I was drunk—with punishment! I don't know when Daniels got tired of the sport and put over the finisher, but I know I come to life flat on the ground and alone.

Well, there was murder in my heart when I stumbled into the camp a half hour later. After makin' sure Kid Roberts was nowheres in sight, my first act is to rout out Ptomaine Joe, the man mountain. Ptomaine was engaged in his favorite exercise, poundin' his ear, but one glance at me and he's plenty wide awake. I shut