Then Frank flung off both his gloves, his face flushed, and his eyes flashing, as he exclaimed:
"Two can play at your game, fellow! If you want to try a round with uncovered knuckles, pick yourself up and come on!"
Snarling like a wounded dog, Bas...o...b..scrambled to his feet; but here the spectators surged between the two, Rains catching hold of the big plebe, while Hodge grasped Merriwell.
"Easy, Frank!" warned Bart. "Are you crazy? You know what it will mean if you fight in the gym. Rhynas has noticed it now--he"s coming."
"Confound that fellow!" muttered Frank. "I don"t often get started this way, but it was such a dirty trick that----"
"Never mind, now. Keep still, or Rhynas will hear."
"Let me get at him!" Bas...o...b..had snarled. "I will beat the life out of him!"
"Stop! stop!" said Rains, swiftly. "You are making a fool of yourself!
You can"t fight here!"
"Can"t I? Well----"
"No, it is against the rules. If you press this, you will be expelled, for the affair will be investigated, and it will be proved that you bared your hand, and Merriwell was forced to do so to defend himself."
"Oh, I could hammer him!"
"Well, there is plenty of time. Steady, now! Here is the professor.
He has scented a row. Can"t you play cool, and pretend it was a joke?
Quick!"
Then Frank was surprised to see Bas...o...b..come forward, laughing in a sickly way, as he said:
"You"re pretty flip with your hands, Merriwell, and that"s right. I hope you won"t lay up anything against me because I lost my glove. I was so excited that I didn"t know it was gone."
It was on Frank"s tongue to give Bas...o...b..the lie, but, for once in his life, Hodge was the cooler of the two, and he warned his friend by a soft pressure on the arm.
Then, seeing Professor Rhynas listening, with a dark look on his face, Frank laughed, and retorted:
"I don"t mind a little thing like that, Bas...o...b.. as long as you didn"t strike me. I rather think I held my own with you, and so we will drop it."
"Yes," said Bas...o...b.. "we will drop it--for the present."
The way he spoke the words seemed to indicate that, though they might let it drop for the present, the affair was not settled between them, by any means.
Rhynas now demanded to know the cause of the excitement, and he was told that Bas...o...b..had knocked his glove off, and then, in his excitement, had struck a blow.
The professor looked blacker than ever.
"Such a thing is not possible," he declared. "This is no resort for fighters. If you fellows have any differences to settle, settle them elsewhere. I propose to run this department so there can be no slurs cast upon it, and I will not have fighting, quarreling or loud talking here."
The professor was very strict, and they knew he meant every word he spoke, so they did their best to pacify him with smooth words and apologies.
The man, however, was too shrewd to be deceived, and he knew very well that the two boxers had come very near fighting in the gymnasium while he was present. However, he could do nothing but warn them, which he did, and then went about his affairs.
The spectators of the little bout had been given something to talk about, for, up to that moment, they had not dreamed there was any one in the academy who could stand up before Bas...o...b..s "wicked left" and not be unmercifully hammered.
Merriwell had been touched very few times with Bas...o...b..s left, for he had constantly been on the guard for any blow that might come from that point, and he had thumped the big plebe most aggravatingly all through the affair.
But, what was most significant, after Bas...o...b..had flung off one glove and struck at Frank with his bare fist, the smaller and more supple lad had sailed in and shown that he could put pounds into his blows, for he had driven Bas...o...b..back and knocked him down.
This feat had caused Paul Rains to gasp with astonishment, and, in his heart, he was forced to acknowledge that he doubted if he were yet a match for Merriwell.
Hodge alone, of them all, had believed all along that Frank was more than a match for Bas...o...b..
Now the spectators began to realize that Merriwell was not given to boasting or "showing off," for he had made no pretense to be the champion boxer, and he had allowed them to think Bas...o...b..was more than a match for anybody in the academy.
When forced to meet some one in a contest that should be a test of skill, Frank had chosen to meet Bas...o...b.. which showed he had been confident in himself all along, for all that he had not thrust himself forward.
In his heart, Rains was very sore, for he had just met Bas...o...b.. and, while he had made a good display, the big fellow had shown that he was the superior.
"Merriwell is putting me in the shade without running up against me at all," thought Paul. "I have lost ground with the fellows right here.
How can I recover?"
It did not take him long to decide that he must go against Merriwell in some kind of a contest--and beat him.
"You are very clever with the gloves, Merriwell," said Rains, stepping forward, and speaking placidly; "but I would like to see what you can do jumping."
"Is that a challenge?" asked Frank, quietly.
"If you wish to regard it as such."
"Oh, I am not anxious; I simply wanted to know just what you meant it for."
"Then let it go as a challenge."
"For what--high jump, or broad jump?"
"Both."
"That"s the talk!" laughed one of the spectators. "Now we will have more sport!"
"All right," laughed Frank. "I will go you, though I have not been doing much jumping lately, and I am not in my best form."
"That will sound all right if you beat," said Rains; "but it will not do for an excuse if you lose."
"All right; let it go. I won"t try to make any other excuse in case you are the victor."
In a ma.s.s the boys surged toward a piece of ground just outside of the gymnasium adapted to jumping.
"What shall it be first?" asked Frank, as he stood at the edge of the long strip of turf.
"Running long jump," decided Rains.