Page:Hugh Pendexter--Tiberius Smith.djvu/81

 from the moving pictures, you would have felt a thrill of joy.

"‘By good rights he ought to cut a foot off each arm,' observed my man, as he ruefully eyed the other's enormous reach, nicely demonstrated when he advanced his immense paw and coyly concealed Tib's dimpled palm from view.

"Then in a second they sprang apart, and the big fellow feinted for the heart and snapped a dirty left at Tib's brow. Tib dodged, but the brawny knuckles barked his right eye in passing, and the crowd jeered and rocked back and forth in delight. Well, sir, the smack of that first blow cut me to the heart. I simply couldn't bear to see the dear old boy cuffed.

"‘Kick him, Tib,' I groaned, my eyes watering anger.

"‘Ashamed of you,' he mumbled, avoiding a rush and ducking to the ropes. 'This seems on the square, and I won't lose the babe by fouling.' And he nearly lost his block by pausing to kiss his bleeding digits to the kid. The blow was a left hook and jarred him badly, sir, but after he had caught the kid's eye and made him chuckle and crow and try to jump from the old hag's arms, he seemed to gather new cunning, and for the rest of the round managed to escape any serious damage.

"‘Rush in,' I begged, as he sat in the corner and