In the revulsion of feeling consequent on the appearance of her champion, Dorothy’s limbs had given way, and she would have fallen had not Mother Joyce caught her and helped her to a chair, where she leaned back, white and dazed. When she recovered enough to note what was going on, Howard and Forbes, stripped to the waist, stood facing each other before her, the latter towering, giant-like, above his smaller adversary.
With a cry she sought to struggle up, but Mother Joyce restrained her. “Don’t interfere,” she whispered. “It’s your only chance.”
“But he’ll kill him.”
The older woman seemed to have no difficulty in assigning the confused pronouns correctly. “I’m not so sure,” she muttered consolingly. “I fancy the captain has his work cut out for him. Anyhow, it’s for you to kape still.”
Jackson’s eyes had lighted up when he had reached Howard’s side and understood what game was on. “It’s many a fight I had in the ring myself before I went on the force,” he whispered, with something very nearly approaching enthusiasm. “It’s a big fellow he is. Can you do him?”
Howard smiled grimly. “I’ve got to,” he answered.
“Well, take the tip from me and tire him out. He’s too big to rush, and if he hits you square once, he’ll knock you out of the ring. Sprint all you can. Get him mad. He’s got a wicked temper, if I know anything of men; and when he loses it, he’ll forget to guard, and you can slug him.”
Under other circumstances Howard would have smiled at the detective’s unaccustomed volubility, but at the moment he had other things to think about. With a nod to show that he understood, he stepped forward to face his adversary.
The disproportion between the two men was very marked. Howard was not a small man, but Forbes was several inches taller, and at least forty pounds heavier. His corded arms looked capable of felling an ox. On the other hand, he was twenty years older, and presumably, slower in his movements than the naval officer, who was in the prime of the late twenties.
Forbes wasted no time in preliminaries. Evidently he meant to show his power by crushing his adversary without delay. The moment that Howard faced him he sprang forward and launched a right-hand swing that would have ended the fight then and there had it connected with Howard’s body. But it did not connect. Howard sprang back, just out of reach, and returned a half-arm jolt that brought the big man up standing.