He jumped me the instant I hit the ground. About three tons of flailing weight crashed down on my shoulders, pinning me to the walk.
As deliberately as I could, I raised my right knee, whammed it into his stomach and threw one arm about his neck in a strangle lock he couldn't break.
"That's showin' him, son!" I heard Pete yell.
I tried not to break his glasses. But I had to be a little rough because he wanted to play rough.
About one minute later he was standing in the fountain, eying me angrily from behind a rising curtain of spray. The water came to his knees.
Suddenly his lips split in a grin. He threw back his head and roared with laughter. "By George, you sure know how to cool off a hot-head!"
"Well—thanks!" I said, modestly.
He stepped out of the fountain, walked up to me and thrust out his hand. "Phillip Goddard's the name!" he said. "She just gave me my ring back! When she said she couldn't marry a certified public accountant I knew there was someone else. You're the kind of lad her great-grandmother went for—and she's just like that famous ancestor of hers!"
"Ancestor?" I gulped.
He nodded. "Just like her! Pluckiest girl in the System! Back in the First Atomic Age it was. First girl pilot to make a solo hop to Saturn—"