famous in collegiate athletics; but in one vital essential he was

hopelessly handicapped in combat with such as Billy Byrne,

for Mallory was a gentleman.

As the mucker rushed upward toward him Mallory had all

the advantage of position and preparedness, and had he done

what Billy Byrne would have done under like circumstances

he would have planted a kick in the midst of the mucker's

facial beauties with all the power and weight and energy at his

command; but Billy Mallory could no more have perpetrated

a cowardly trick such as this than he could have struck a

woman.

Instead, he waited, and as the mucker came on an even

footing with him Mallory swung a vicious right for the man's

jaw. Byrne ducked beneath the blow, came up inside Mallory's

guard, and struck him three times with trip-hammer

velocity and pile-driver effectiveness--once upon the jaw and

twice--below the belt!

The girl, clinging to the rail, riveted by the paralysis of

fright, saw her champion stagger back and half crumple to the

deck. Then she saw him make a brave and desperate rally, as,

though torn with agony, he lurched forward in an endeavor

to clinch with the brute before him. Again the mucker struck

his victim--quick choppy hooks that rocked Mallory's head

from side to side, and again the brutal blow below the belt;

but with the tenacity of a bulldog the man fought for a hold

upon his foe, and at last, notwithstanding Byrne's best efforts,

he succeeded in closing with the mucker and dragging him to

the deck.

Here the two men rolled and tumbled, Byrne biting, gouging,

<<BackPagesTo menuNext>>