"You'll be gray-headed before you get anything out of me, 'cept a whack on the head!"
"Yes, you're said to be a great fighter, I know," was Teddy's remark; "but you'd better make all your fight 'round here where you know the police will stop a row before anybody has a chance to hurt you. It's safer!"
"I'll make my fight anywhere I please," Skip blustered.
"Then if you've got half the pluck you claim, show us a place where it can be done in shape," answered Teddy, sharply. "I'm here with nothing to do but settle matters. I'm going to stay in the town right along, and I can't be bothered with you all the time. If you get the best of me when we're where nobody'll interfere with us, I'll leave; an' if I get the best of you, why, then I'll get back my dollar, an' you'll have to behave yourself."
Boys like pluck, and even Skip's friends applauded this remark. Teddy's business-like offer pleased them wonderfully, and they had no doubt the bully would agree at once. But, to the surprise of all, Skip remained silent.
"He don't dare do it!" Teenie jeered. "He's afraid of gettin' the worst of it—same's he did that day over in Brooklyn!"
"Hold your tongue!" Master Jellison answered, looking angrily around him. "Do you fellers s'pose that I'm scared of him?"
"If you ain't, why don't you do as he says?" asked Teenie.
"I've got to 'tend to my work," Skip stammered, "that's why I can't; but I'll give him a poundin' now, an' let that settle it."
"If you try to touch me here where we're sure of being arrested, I'll have you locked up for stealin'," Teddy said, sternly. "I could do that, anyway; but I'd rather manage my own affairs. I don't see how you can be too busy to leave for an hour, because you haven't done any work since you said you'd drive me out of town. I'll go wherever you say, an' the rest of the fellers shall promise to leave us alone till one of us says he's had enough!"