Now that he had done what he deemed to be his duty in releasing Fluffy3 Jim from torture, he had no grudge4 against the big young horseman with whom he found himself matched. He felt listless about the matter—bored by it, though keenly alive to the necessity of keeping that huge red hand as far as possible from his face and body. One fair smack5 from such a leg-o'-mutton fist might well serve to put him to bed for a week, which would be particularly awkward.
For fully6 three rounds, therefore, he remained entirely7 on the defensive8, much to the disappointment of the crowd, who saw no merit in his performance of side-stepping and dancing beyond the reach of their champion's writhing9 arms. To them that indicated cowardice10, with which they freely taunted11 him.
Which, being interpreted, meant: "Get close up to him"—excellent counsel, but rather more difficult to follow than they realized.
"Keep on playing him, lad—that's right," whispered Chuck Smithies, encouragingly. "He'll tire first at this game. Has no more idea of boxing than a backwoods-man. But you mustn't let him hit you, mind—he'll knock you sick if he gets one in."
"I wish it were over," said Dick, devoutly13. "It's such a farce14. There's really so little to fight about."
"Oh, true enough, that village idiot seems to be your evil star," the bookmaker agreed. "Like fighting for a block of wood, sure! But you butted15 in to save him, sonny, so you've got to stick it out. Buck16 up! Juddy's coming for you baldheaded this time."
Yes, Juddy was indeed in most desperate earnest on this occasion. With all the vocal17 support on his side, and a big advantage in weight, he had every inducement to force the fight to an early and successful issue. If, he told himself, he could slam his fist once, just once, into the schoolboy's face—so cool a face it was, too, as it tantalizingly18 bobbed up and down in front of him—there would be a straight road into the public-house, drinks round at some hero-worshipper's expense, and three cheers for a jolly good fellow. The said "good fellow" being, as a matter of course, Juddy himself.
Dazzled by the prospect19 of such hero-worship, Juddy made the pace "mustard". Twice his sledge-hammer fist got near enough to sting and redden Dick's ear—another inch to the left and the schoolboy would have gone down like a felled ox. Every artifice20 in Dick's box-of-tricks had to be brought into play before the termination of that hurricane round. It left him badly in need of his second wind, but unhurt. Moreover it had begun to dawn on a section of the crowd that the swiftness of his movements was not altogether due to funk, and some few amongst them shuffled21 round to his side of the ring.
"Ahr Juddy ain't hevin' it all his own ro?ad this journey," observed one elderly farm-hand, puffing23 thoughtfully at his pipe.
"Noa," his mate agreed. "T'young feller from t'schule seems ter hev some so?art of a game on. Leastways, Juddy canna fetch him one."
"Cos why? Cos t'schule kid's 'wick' on his feet," put in another, wiser than the rest. "He's t'captain o' t'fo?itball team, an' it wor him as would ha' scored t'winnin' goal at Walsbridge if Fluffy Jim hedn't spoilt him."
"What! And after that he runs up agin Juddy to save Jim fro' a hidin'! Why, if Ah'd been him, Ah'd hev seen Jim cold as frozen mutton fust."
"Nay24, that's so?art o' thing they do in them big schules, tha knows. 'Code of honour' they calls it, Ah'm telled. Of all the daft ideas—hey, sitha," he broke off, "what a sissup Juddy's just given him!"
"Sitha, what a sissup" was the yokel's way of announcing to those behind him that their champion had at last "got home" with that vicious right hand of his. An exultant25 cheer marked the success. Dick spun26 round with the jarring shock, and in that helplessly sick moment he would have fallen an easy prey27 to Juddy's next blow but for a lucky chance. Dick slipped on the snow of the improvised28 prize-ring, worn glassy by now, and thereby29 escaped the full force of his opponent's second drive. As it was, blood flowed from a cut on his cheek, which Chuck Smithies had difficulty in stanching30.
"Didn't I warn you not to let him hit you?" he grumbled31. "One more swipe on the napper like that, and you'll be dreaming of home and mother, sonny."
"I'm not so particular what happens," gasped32 Dick, in his giddy agony. "Can't stop rotting about here all afternoon."
He was dimly conscious that Chuck Smithies was breathing fire and brimstone into his ear as he rose to face the next round. He was quite too badly shaken for the time being, to realize that his triumph-flushed opponent was blowing like the bellows33 of a blacksmith's shop.
Juddy was no pierrot, and the unaccustomed prancing34 he had done before "clumpin' t'schule-kid's chump" had almost emptied his lungs of ozone35. Greatly to the chagrin36 of his supporters, he seemed quite unable to break again through Dick's somewhat groggy37 guard.
"Oh, Juddy, lad," they passionately38 pleaded, "dew slap it across him. He nobbut needs a push—why, tha could blow him o'er!"
Which was precisely39 what Juddy could not do. He could scarcely have cooled his porridge with the breath that was left in him just then. Still, there was no reduction in the carthorse strength of his muscles, as the bruises40 on Dick's protective arms could have testified. Both of them came out of that round with diminished glory, and the referee41 cast anxious glances back at his neglected public-house, darkly hinting at a draw "if things don't buck up quick".
"They're pumped, both of 'em," observed a candid42 critic. "You could wring43 'em out like a couple o' dishcloths. What a frost!"
And a "frost" it most likely would have been, with a bored-stiff schoolboy on one side, and a Puffing Billy of a horseman on the other, had not Mr. Mawdster, dressed in his Sunday best, and obviously "out for the afternoon", taken advantage of a parting in the crowd to insinuate45 himself amongst the foremost spectators. There, with his nose superciliously46 wrinkled, and a contemptuous smile playing on his thin lips, he formed a conspicuous47 figure which Dick could not fail to note, even though one of the schoolboy's eyes was rapidly closing under a puff22 of tender skin.
The scorn of an enemy is the surest form of tonic48 to a fighter of mettle49. The printer, deliberately50 meaning to be insulting, did Dick an immeasurable kindness. Pride surged up like a red sea in the school captain's veins51. The feeling of numbness52 passed from them—they tingled53 into leaping life.
"The worm's come here to gloat over me being pole-axed," he decided54. "Very well, I'll disappoint him. Juddy Whatshisname, Esquire, can look out for his eye now. I'm going to fight!"
Into the ring he jumped, a new man from head to foot. No more back-pedalling and side-stepping—no more trelliswork-formation of defending arms before an elusive55 head. Dick sought out his opponent with a refreshing56 newness of purpose which astonished everyone, more particularly the young horseman, who was called upon to shield himself for the first time, and plainly didn't know how to do it.
Rap, rap went Dick's knuckles57 between the yokel's wide-set eyes. No damage done, apparently58! Dick ducked to avoid the round-armed return blow, and brought his left instantly to Juddy's jaw59. "Ugh!" grunted60 Juddy, but that was all. A weather-beaten head like his could stand a lot of pommelling.
"Like hitting a wooden Highlander61 outside a snuff-shop," Dick inwardly commented. "Nil62 desperandum! I'll hurt him yet!"
"Hit him on t'neb, Foxey—hit him on t'neb," came a familiar voice from the crowd—the hoarse63 voice of Fluffy Jim.
The village idiot was not quite so daft after all! While the fight had been going against his champion he had kept a shut mouth—he was sharp enough to realize the change in the feelings of the crowd, which made it safe at last to venture on an encouraging yell. He knew, too, that his own body would probably be free from violence for a long time to come if Juddy were beaten now. This time he was to be a help, not a hindrance64, to the Captain of Foxenby, who really appreciated a heartening cheer at the turn of the tide.
"Bravo, sonny!" cried Chuck Smithies, at the end of the round. "You've sparred him to a standstill. But that isn't enough by a jugful65. The shades of night will fall before you knock him down by hammering his dial. I know these farm-hands—bred on beef and bacon pasties—tough as prairie grass. The referee is fidgeting to declare it a draw; if the police pop in and catch him amusing himself like this, they'll haul him before the beak66. There's only one way to end it. Just one spot to hit Juddy on——"
"Don't recommend it; too dangerous, even if you could locate it. No, you must tap him on the neck; here, behind the ear."
"Any risk of serious harm?"
"None whatever. Absolute kindness to animals, my dear boy. Safer than chloroform. He'll go to sleep like a babe for a few minutes, that's all. Now, at it again. It's cat-and-mouse, lad, so put him out of his misery68, sharp!"
The village idiot's voice, still harping69 on the necessity of smiting70 Juddy's "neb", boomed out again, and the crowd's sympathy seemed now to veer71 to Dick's side. After all, many of the farm boys had gone too long in fear of Juddy the Unconquered—a wholesome72 pasting, they began to think, would do him no harm!
He seemed to know what was in store for him, too, for his crouching73 attitude as Dick approached him was curiously74 suggestive of an exhausted75 bull awaiting the dash of a matador76.
A pang77 of perilous78 pity shot through Dick's heart, so woebegone did his rival look. But the recollection of the torture this hulking bully79 had inflicted80 on Fluffy Jim served to steel his heart. Conscious that the round was wholly his, he lured81 the tired giant into the exact position necessary for the coup44 de grace. Then, setting his teeth, he followed Chuck Smithies' directions ruthlessly. To his unutterable relief, the medicine worked like a charm.
Juddy crumpled82 up and fell, and was counted out before his astonished supporters could haul him to his feet and shake the breath back into his body.
Amid the babel which followed, the sportsmanship of the farm-hands rose to a higher level than had previously83 seemed possible. Rather shamefacedly, as though they were afraid of being caught at it, they cheered "t'Foxenby kid", and would have stood him a good many drinks if he had coveted84 such a doubtful appreciation85. But Chuck Smithies shepherded him into the tavern86, and, with those cunning restoratives known best to frequenters of the prize-ring, modified the pain and unsightliness of his face and eye.
"You're a boxer87 of parts, sonny," said the admiring bookie, "but you'd never make a professional bruiser. Too soft-hearted! Still, you'll be the talk of the country-side after outing Juddy Stockgill. He's been Cock o' the North two years. At the school, too, they'll make no end of a song-and-dance, what?"
"Why, laddie, you ought to be jumping glad to have your chums know of this victory," he said. "But you don't seem happy at all."
"Oh, I'm all right, thanks. Don't worry about me," Dick hastened to say.
The bookie adjusted his hat and drew on his gloves with care.
"Well, chin-chin, sonny—I am hopping91 it now," he said. "Many thanks for a jolly afternoon! I like you. I'm no fair-weather friend. Remember what I said to you in the train—hail me if you're ever in a hole, and I'll do my little best to dig you out. Keep on bathing your eye till bedtime. Warm water will fetch the plaster off in the morning. You'll feel better then than Clodhopper Juddy, I'll wager92 a crown!"
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1
serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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fluffy
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| adj.有绒毛的，空洞的 | |
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grudge
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| n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做 | |
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smack
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| vt.拍，打，掴；咂嘴；vi.含有…意味；n.拍 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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defensive
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| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
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writhing
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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cowardice
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| n.胆小，怯懦 | |
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taunted
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| 嘲讽( taunt的过去式和过去分词 )； 嘲弄； 辱骂； 奚落 | |
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barge
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| n.平底载货船，驳船 | |
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devoutly
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| adv.虔诚地，虔敬地，衷心地 | |
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farce
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| n.闹剧，笑剧，滑稽戏；胡闹 | |
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butted
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| 对接的 | |
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buck
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| n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃 | |
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vocal
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| adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
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tantalizingly
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| adv.…得令人着急，…到令人着急的程度 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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artifice
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| n.妙计，高明的手段；狡诈，诡计 | |
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shuffled
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| v.洗（纸牌）( shuffle的过去式和过去分词 )；拖着脚步走；粗心地做；摆脱尘世的烦恼 | |
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puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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puffing
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| v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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exultant
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| adj.欢腾的，狂欢的，大喜的 | |
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spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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improvised
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| a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
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thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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stanching
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| v.使（伤口）止血( stanch的现在分词 )；止（血）；使不漏；使不流失 | |
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31
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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33
bellows
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| n.风箱；发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的名词复数 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的第三人称单数 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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prancing
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| v.（马）腾跃( prance的现在分词 ) | |
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ozone
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| n.臭氧，新鲜空气 | |
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chagrin
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| n.懊恼；气愤；委屈 | |
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groggy
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| adj.体弱的；不稳的 | |
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passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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bruises
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| n.瘀伤，伤痕，擦伤( bruise的名词复数 ) | |
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referee
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| n.裁判员．仲裁人，代表人，鉴定人 | |
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candid
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| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
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wring
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| n.扭绞；v.拧，绞出，扭 | |
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coup
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| n.政变；突然而成功的行动 | |
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insinuate
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| vt.含沙射影地说，暗示 | |
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superciliously
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| adv.高傲地；傲慢地 | |
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conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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tonic
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| n./adj.滋补品，补药，强身的，健体的 | |
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49
mettle
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| n.勇气，精神 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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51
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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52
numbness
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| n.无感觉，麻木，惊呆 | |
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53
tingled
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| v.有刺痛感( tingle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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elusive
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| adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的 | |
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56
refreshing
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| adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的 | |
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57
knuckles
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| n.（指人）指关节( knuckle的名词复数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝v.（指人）指关节( knuckle的第三人称单数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝 | |
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58
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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60
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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61
highlander
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| n.高地的人，苏格兰高地地区的人 | |
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nil
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| n.无，全无，零 | |
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hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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hindrance
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| n.妨碍，障碍 | |
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jugful
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| 一壶的份量 | |
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66
beak
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| n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻 | |
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67
queried
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| v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 )；询问 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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harping
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| n.反复述说 | |
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smiting
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的现在分词 ) | |
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71
veer
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| vt.转向，顺时针转，改变；n.转向 | |
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wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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73
crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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75
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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76
matador
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| n.斗牛士 | |
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77
pang
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| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
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78
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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bully
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| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 | |
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inflicted
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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lured
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| 吸引，引诱（lure的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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crumpled
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| adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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coveted
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| adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图 | |
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appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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boxer
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| n.制箱者，拳击手 | |
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syllable
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| n.音节；vt.分音节 | |
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fervently
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| adv.热烈地，热情地，强烈地 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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hopping
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| n. 跳跃 动词hop的现在分词形式 | |
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wager
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| n.赌注；vt.押注，打赌 | |
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