"Oh, say, Nappy, you had better call it off for to-night," interposed Slugger Brown. "You can't fight in those wet clothes. Finish it some other time."
"I won't!" came the ejaculation, and then the dripping boy hurled himself once more at Jack.
But he was blinded by water and mud as well as by rage; and the oldest Rover boy easily evaded the new onslaught. Then, of a sudden, he reached out and caught Martell by both wrists and held him in a vise-like grasp.
"Now, see here, Martell, don't be foolish," he said sternly. "I don't want to fight a fellow who has been overboard and is wringing wet. You'll catch your death of cold hanging around here in this night air. Go on back to the Hall and change your clothing. If you want to finish this some other time, I'll be ready for you."
"That's the talk!" added Spouter.
"It would be foolish to go on in this condition," remarked Gif. "Call it off, by all means."
"You might as well do it," came from Slugger Brown. "You wouldn't have any kind of a fair show, Nappy—after having been in the river, and after having had to lick the other Rover first."
"He didn't lick me!" burst out Fred, indignantly.
More words followed, but in the end Nappy Martell consented to return to the Hall and went off in company with Slugger Brown, Codfish, and one or two more friends who had chanced to come up.
"You'll have to slip in on the sly, or else somebody may ask some unpleasant questions," remarked Slugger Brown on the way to the school.