"Why not?"
"If one of dem freshies got injuries in dis place so bad it might git out, an' dat would fix me."
"I don't intend to use it on him unless I have to. Go ahead and explain your trick. If it isn't straight I want my money back."
"Dere won't be any money back, fer der trick is all right, all right. Now stan' up here an' I'll show yer how it's did."
Kelley then showed Bruce how to bring the edge of his open hand down on the upper side of an enemy's wrist just back of the joint.
"Yer wants ter snap it like dis," Buster explained, illustrating with a sharp, rebounding motion. "If yer strikes him right dere wid der cushion meat on der lower edge of yer hand an' snaps yer hand erway like dis, it's dead sure ter break der bone. Jes' try it on yer own wrist, but be careful not ter try it too hard."
Bruce did as directed, and he found that he hurt himself severely, although he struck a very light blow.
"Dat's ter trick," said Kelley, "an' it's a dandy. Don't yer ever use it 'less yer dead sure yer wants ter break der odder feller's wrist."
Then the professor called up a colored boy, who rubbed Bruce down, and the king of the sophomores finally departed.
As he walked back toward his room in the dusk of early evening, Browning began to feel sorry that he had learned the trick at all.