Page:Stringer - Lonely O'Malley.djvu/164

 fat boy there!" sobbed the defeated warrior, quakingly pointing out the victor.

"That little runt—that miserable undersized puddin'-head? Now you get out and lick the daylight out o' that kid, or I 'll lick the daylight out o' you!"

"I can't do it, Pop!" wailed the New Boy, miserably,

"Git at him, or I 'll whale the life out o' you!"

He opened the door, and reached down, in a rage, for his oven poker.

Lonely shot through the door, as from a cannon, and all but knocked Annie Eliza over as he went. It so happened that Piggie was minutely and proudly explaining just how he had effected the final blow, when the sheer terror-born momentum of Lonely's flying body caught him fairly in the pit of the stomach.

It was so unlooked-for, so undreamed-of, that the crowd dropped back aghast. Even Piggie's jaw fell at the sight of the drawn and gory and desperate face before him.

"I 'm goin' to kill you now!" Lonely screamed at him, and in the very abandon of