"Take care!" he called suddenly to Harry. He swung himself up on the rock opposite Harry, forcing his opponent into an open place in the field. Then David let loose a swinging blow with his closed fist.
Harry and David were evenly matched fighters. Harry was taller and older, and had been trained as a boxer in school and college gymnasiums; but David was a firmly built fellow, of medium height, with muscles as hard as iron from his work in the open. In addition, David was furiously angry.
Harry parried the first blow with his left arm, then made a lunge at David.
"Here, you fellows, cut that out!" commanded Jack Bolling. "You are almost men. Don't scrap like a couple of schoolboys. You know the women in our party will be disgusted with you."
Neither Harry nor David paid the least attention to Jack's excellent advice. Both fighters had their blood up. Harry's face was crimson and David's white. Few blows were struck, because David made a headlong rush at his opponent and the combatants wrestled back and forth, each boy trying to force the other on the ground. It was by sheer force of determination that David won. David got one hand loose and struck Harry over the eye. Harry went down with a sudden crash. His head struck the earth with a whack that temporarily put him out of the fight.
But David kept his knee on Harry's chest. He made no effort to get up. His face was still working with anger.
"Say, get off of Sears, Brewster, can't you?" growled Jack Bolling. "You see he is down and out and you've won the fight. Don't you know that the rules of the game won't let you hit a man when he is down?"
David straightened up and stood upright. "Thank you, Bolling," he said curtly. "I wasn't a sport and I am glad you reminded me of it. I was too angry with Sears to want to quit the fight."
Harry was sitting upon the ground, looking greatly chagrined. He had a bruise over one eye and the place was rapidly swelling.
"I expect I ought to apologize to you, Sears, for not having let you alone when you were down," remarked David proudly. "But in the future you will kindly leave my private affairs alone."