ff your boots?"

ur

take mine

out into the drift well within the flicker

going to dec

ed out first loses. No sec

dy for the las

ut-I'm

opponent. Steve ducked and went under it, at the same time

you'd have me believe, eh? Been playing

. I hope I have higher ambitions in life th

rvis, dancing in, his arms

of which landed, they backed away. But Steve, without waiting for his opponent to take the lead, became the aggressor now. He sprang in as lightly as a c

ac

ncing blow, Jarvis having turned a little, else the boy wou

teve's neck and the lad went down in a h

e that time, didn

His eyes were on his adversary, watching him narrowly

away from the taller boy for a few seconds. Then he closed in like a whirlwind. For a full minute it was give and take. Both lads were strong, a

stinctively. Jarvis' nose had sustained several bangs. It was somewhat larger

he other one before I've d

if he had been hit with a club. But he was up like a flash. This time he was thoroughly angry. He charged Stev

in. Then Steve struck his opponent a blow in the r

battled with dogged determination, taking his punishment as a matter of course, beating, hammering, dodging, ducking, but without t

ad discovered what was going on. Summoning some of his companions, the men ran down where th

a perfectly friendly little arg

aughed up

t, then, if you've got to fight. We'l

ness that had not marked their fighting before. Two blows delivere

yelled fo

f the spectators ever had witnessed a more scientific battle with fists. The lads were side-stepping and dancing in their s

all. They had barely one set of good eyes between them. Jarvis was getting more and more desperate. Try as he might his superior strength was not equ

nothing more substantial than thin air. Then, like a bolt of lightning, the fist of Steve Rush shot out, catching Ja

wallop! That would have knocked down one of the mules

e was quickly on his feet. It was observed that he staggered a little. Both boys were

w, lads," yell

at last one," roared Bob, making

e smaller of the lads, he having moved his

out to you, Bo

me he was laid on his back on the ground, while Steve

or we'll take a hand in t

o his feet and Rush wa

an arm about the other's neck. For a full minute they stood thus,

-hand hook on his opponent's jaw, but there wa

Jarvis' stomach-a blow that made the larger boy gr

t enough?" b

N

a fairly strong bl

er. Then all at once, with the last ounce of their failing strength, the two youthful gladiators began delivering sho

foul the other. It was a "square" fight, s

in their blows. They ha

Bob?" breathed Rush in

if we expect to report f

the other boy's arm, and, staggering to a side wa

for the miners to return to their work. Jarvis staggered out into

arest and the pluckiest bundle of

out the other's shoulder started for the main level. The desperate battle that was to be the beginning