"No!"
"Ner gouge?"
"What do you mean by "gouge"?" Pleasant pantomimed with a thumbnail crooked on the outer edge of each eye-socket.
"No!" was the horrified cry.
"Jest a square, stand-up and knock-down fight?"
"Yes," she said reluctantly but bravely.
"Lum will be timekeeper and referee to make them break away when they clinch." When she explained that Pleasant scratched his head.
"They can"t even _wra.s.sle_?" Miss Holden understood and did not correct.
"They can"t even _wra.s.sle_. And you and I will be the seconds."
"Seconds--whut do we do?"
"Oh, we--we fan them and--and wash off the blood," she shivered a little in spite of herself. Pleasant smiled broadly.
"Which one you goin" to wash off?"
"I--I don"t know." Pleasant grinned.
"Well, we better toss up fer it an" _atter they git hyeh_." She did not understand his emphasis.
"Very well," she a.s.sented carelessly.
Up the road came Ham Cage now, and down the road came King Camp--both with a rapid stride. Though both had sworn to shoot on sight, they had kept away from each other as they had promised, and now without speaking they glowered unwinking into each other"s eyes. Nor did either ask a question when the little teacher, with two towels over one arm, led the way down the road, up over a little ridge, and down to a gra.s.sy hollow by the side of a tinkling creek. It was hard for the girl to believe that these two boys meant to shoot each other as they had threatened, but Pleasant had told her they surely would, and that fact held her purpose firm. Without a word they listened while she explained, and without a word both nodded a.s.sent--nor did they show any surprise when the girl repeated what she had told Pleasant Trouble and Lum Chapman.
"Jes" a plain ole square, stand-up an" knock-down fight," murmured Pleasant consolingly, pulling forth a silver quarter, "Heads--you wipe Ham; tails--you wipe King." Miss Holden nodded, and for the first time the two lads turned their angry eyes from each other to the girl and yet neither asked a question. Tails it was, and the girl motioned King to a log on one side of the hollow, and Pleasant and Ham to another log on the other side. She handed Pleasant one of the towels, dropped her little watch into Lum"s huge palm, and on second thought took it back again: it might get broken, and Lum might be too busy to keep time. Only Pleasant saw the gritting of Ham"s teeth when she took her stand by King"s side.
"Take off your coats!" she said sharply. The two obeyed swiftly.
"Time!" she called, and the two leaped for each other.
"Stop!" she cried, and they halted. "I forgot--shake hands!"
Both shook their heads instead, like maddened bulls, and even Lum looked amazed; he even spoke:
"Whut"s the use o" fightin", if they shakes hands?"
Miss Holden had no argument ready, and etiquette was waived. "Time!"
she repeated, and then the two battering-rams, revolving their fists country-fashion, engaged. Half-forgotten Homeric phrases began to flit from a faraway schoolroom back into the little teacher"s mind and she began to be consoled for the absence of gloves--those tough old ancients had used gauges of iron and steel. The two boys were evenly matched.
After a few thundering body blows they grew wary, and when the round closed their faces were unmarked, they had done each other no damage, and Miss Holden was thrilled--it wasn"t so bad after all. Each boy grabbed his own towel and wiped the sweat off his own face.
"Git at it, Ham--git at it!" encouraged Pleasant, and Ham got at it.
He gave King a wallop on the jaw; King came back with a jolt on the chin, and the two embraced untenderly.
"Break away!" cried the girl. "Lum, make them break!" Lum thrust one mighty arm between them and, as they flailed unavailingly over it, threw them both back with a right-and-left sweep. Both were panting when the girl called time, and the first blood showed streaming from King"s nose. Miss Holden looked a little pale, but gallantly she dipped the towel in the brook and went about her work. Again Pleasant saw his princ.i.p.al"s jaw work in a gritting movement, and he chuckled encouragement so loudly that the girl heard him and looked around indignantly. It was inevitable that the seconds, even unconsciously, should take sides, and that point was coming fast. The girl did not hear herself say:
"Shift your head and come back from underneath!" And that was what King proceeded to do, and Ham got an upper-cut on the chin that snapped his head up and sprinkled the blue sky with stars for him just as the bell of the girl"s voice sounded time. Meanwhile, up the road below them came a khaki-clad youth and a girl--Polly Sizemore and one of her soldier lovers who was just home on a furlough. Polly heard the noises in the hollow, c.o.c.ked an ear, put her finger on her lips, and led him to the top of the little ridge whence she could peak over. Her amazed eyes grew hot seeing the Mission girl, and she turned and whispered:
"That fotched-on woman"s got "em fightin"."
The soldier"s face radiated joy indeed, and as unseen spectators the two noiselessly settled down.
"Whur"d they learn to fight this way?" whispered the soldier--the army had taught him. Polly whispered back:
"_She"s_ a-larnin" "em." The khaki boy gurgled his joy and craned his neck.
"Whut they fightin" about?" Polly flushed and turned her face.
"I--er--I don"t know." The soldier observed neither her flush nor her hesitation, for King and Ham were springing forward for another round; he only muttered his disgust at their awkwardness and their ignorance of the ring in terms that were strange to the girl by his side.
"The mutts, the cheeses, the pore dawgs--they don"t know how to guard an" they ain"t _got_ no lefts."
Pleasant was advising and encouraging his princ.i.p.al now openly and in a loud voice, and Ham"s face began to twist with fury when he heard the Mission girl begin to spur on King. With bared teeth he rushed forward and through the wild blows aimed at him, got both underholds, and King gave a gasping grunt as the breath was squeezed quite out of him.
"Break!" cried the girl. Lum tugged at the locked hand and wrist behind King"s back and King"s hands flew to Ham"s throat. "Break! Break!" And Lum had literally to tear them apart.
"Time!" gasped the girl. She was on the point of tears now, but she held them back and her mouth tightened--she would give them one more round anyhow. When the battling pair rose Pleasant lost his head. He let loose a fox-hunting yell. He forgot his duty and the rules; he forgot the girl--he forgot all but the fight.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
"Let "em loose!" he yelled. "Git at it boys! Go fer him, Ham--whoop--ee--ee!" The girl was electrified. Lum began cracking the knuckles of his huge fingers. Polly and the soldier rose to their feet. That little dell turned eons back. The people there wore skins and two cavemen who had left their clubs at home fought with all the other weapons they had. The Mission girl could never afterward piece out the psychology of that moment of world darkness, but when she saw Ham"s crooked thumbs close to King"s eyes a weird and thrilling something swept her out of herself. Her watch dropped to the ground. She rushed forward, seized two handfuls of Ham"s red hair, and felt Polly"s two sinewy hands seizing hers. Like a tigress she flashed about; just in time then came the call of civilization, and she answered it with a joyous cry.
Bounding across the creek below came a tall young man, who stopped suddenly in sheer amaze at the scene and as suddenly dashed on.
With hair and eyes streaming, the girl went to meet him and rushed into his arms. From that haven she turned.
"It"s a draw!" she said faintly. "Shake--" She did not finish the sentence. Ham and King had risen and were staring at her and the stranger. They looked at each other, and then saw Polly sidling back to the soldier. Again they looked at each other, grinned at each other, and, as each turned for his coat--clasped hands.
"Oh!" cried the girl, "I"m so glad."
"This is not my brother," she said, leading the stranger forward.
If she expected to surprise them, she didn"t, for in the hills brothers and sisters do not rush into each other"s arms. "It"s my sweetheart, and he"s come to take me home. And you won"t shoot each other--you won"t fight any more?" And Ham said:
"Not jes" at present"; and King laughed.
"I"m so glad."
Pleasant swung back to the Mission House with the two foreigners, and on the way Miss Holden explained. The stranger was a merry person, and that part of Happy Valley rang with his laughter.
"My! I wish I had got there earlier--what were they fighting about?"
"Why, Polly Sizemore, that pretty girl with black hair who lost her head when--when--I caught hold of Ham." The shoulder of Pleasant Trouble that was not working up and down over his crutch began to work up and down over something else.
"What"s the matter, Pleasant?" asked the girl.