But Sube stood his ground. "I didn't do a thing to your ol' horse!" he cried desperately.
"Well, one o' yer gang done it, and that's the same thing!" muttered the clipper-man, supplementing his questionable logic by unquestionable profanity.
At this point Dick Bissell undertook to interject some of his humor into the situation.
"Nancy'll never love 'im if he looks like—" he began; but he never finished the remark.
For Sube's fist struck him squarely in the mouth in a maniacal effort to drive the cruel words back down his throat. And that was the way the fight started.
For a time Sube appeared to be possessed of the strength of a young Samson. He pounded his antagonist all over the place with an insane fury, drawing blood from lip and nose, and planting several blows where they were destined to leave a dark crescent "shiner." But judged from a purely physical standpoint Sube was no match for Dick Bissell; and as his mental demands for blood began to be satisfied his wonderful offensive began to flag. He allowed himself to be drawn into the clinch that Dick had from the first been trying to work.
An instant later the back of Sube's head bumped the floor, and he began to stop Dick's blows with his face. Then it dawned on him for the first time that he was actually fighting Dick Bissell. He knew of course that he couldn't thrash Dick; he had known it for years; and he couldn't understand how he ever happened to undertake such a monumental task. The mere thought weakened him.
Dick must have felt Sube relax; for suddenly he seized both of Sube's wrists and pinioned his arms across his breast.
"You're—a fine—lookin' thing!" he panted. "Nancy oughta—see y'u NOW!"
Dick had unconsciously touched the magic spring that loosed the maniac, and Sube flung him aside as if he had been a new-born babe. The two boys gained their feet at almost the same instant. Then Sube launched an attack on the larger boy that far surpassed in fury his initial charge. He hit, he scratched, he bit, and kicked; and again he exhausted his strength and went under in a clinch. And this time he couldn't come back. Dick hammered him roundly, and when he could spare the breath taunted him unfeelingly about Nancy, and threatened to lick him to a frazzle right before her loving eyes.