Browning reeled backward, having received a terrific crack on the ear.
If Frank had not been slightly dazed he might have followed the sophomore closely, but he was a bit slow in getting after Bruce.
For a few seconds the boys gave an exhibition of scientific sparring which would have proved very interesting to their comrades if all had not been too busy to watch them.
Frank Merriwell contiuued to laugh, and it had been said at Yale that he was most dangerous in an encounter when he laughed.
"You came near doing it, Browning," he admitted, "but it was rather tricky on your part. I wasn't looking for a fight."
"You will get many things you are not looking for before you have been at Yale much longer," returned the king.
"Think so?"
"Dead sure."
The two lads seemed to be very evenly matched, save that Merriwell was the more catlike on his feet. Browning was solid, and it took a terrific blow to stagger him. Merriwell was plainly the more scientific. He could get in and away from his foe in a most successful manner, but he saw that in the confined limits of a ring Browning's rush would be difficult to escape.
What the result of this encounter might have been cannot be told, for two freshmen suddenly appeared and gave the alarm that at least a hundred sophomores were coming in a body to aid their comrades.