“I tell you vat I do, py shiminy Grismus!” wheezed Fritz, once more getting erect and kicking the bar angrily to one side. “I kick you mit der footpall. Der vone vat kicks der pall farder as der oder feller iss der pest man, hey?”
“I keek, or I fight, or I t’row de weight, or I jump,” yelled Silva. “What I care, huh? I beat you at ever’t’ing.”
“Talk,” returned Fritz, “iss der cheapest ding vat iss. Ve kick each odder mit der footpall, und I send him sky-high und make you feel like t’irty cents. Fairst I kick, den you. I peen der pest kicker vat efer habbened. Vatch a leetle.”
Merry and his friends, behind the pile of rocks at the edge of the mesa, had been enjoying themselves hugely. They had thought, for a few moments, that the time had come for them to interfere and stop a fight, and it was with a good deal of satisfaction that they saw a personal encounter give way to a kicking match.
“Great Scott!” exclaimed Merriwell, watching while Fritz stepped to one side and picked up a football, “they’ve got our best five-dollar pigskin. Those fellows must be given to understand that they can’t tamper with our football equipment.”
“See this out first, Chip,” pleaded Ballard. “Don’t interfere until the kicking match is over with. Look at Fritz, will you. From the preparations he’s making you’d think he was going to kick the ball clear into the middle of next week.”
Very carefully Fritz was heaping up a little pile of sand; then, still with the same elaborate care, he stood the ball on this mound, drew back, and swung his foot. Once, twice, the foot went back and forth; the third time, Fritz nerved himself for a supreme attempt. One would have thought he was making ready to kick in the side of a house. Forward flew the foot, missed the ball altogether, and the kicker came down on his back.
A cackle of insulting laughter came from the Mexican. “Rhi-rhi-no-cer-oos!” he taunted. “Dat is not de way I make de keek. Watch, and you see.”
With that Silva ran at the ball and lifted it high and far. No doubt it was an accident, but it made Fritz green with envy.
“I can do petter as dot!” he shouted. “Vait, now, vile I haf some shances mit it!”