"We will go home now," announced Steve. "You come with us, Ignatz," he added, taking an arm of the Polish boy. "I am sorry this thing happened, for I had hoped we should be able to keep out of further trouble. We will get a bad name if we don't stop having so many rows."
"But how are we going to help it?" protested Bob. "I can't stand around and see a boy abused by a big brute like Kalinski, without taking a hand."
"You did right, but I am sorry it occurred; that's all."
Reaching their boarding place, Rush took Bob and Ignatz to his room. He looked Jarvis over from head to feet. The bandage about the latter's head was now stained a dark red, where the fists of the pit boss had pummeled him, while the burns on the lad's hands, that had been healed over, were now raw and painful. Rush quickly bathed and redressed his companion's wounds, then turned his attention to Brodsky. The latter had received some pretty hard knocks, and was also in need of treatment, which Steve gave him at once.
None of them had any thought for supper, which, in fact, had long since been finished in the dining room of the boarding house. Rush looked over the Pole with keen eyes.
"You have been fighting before to-night. What for?" he demanded.
"Kalinski, he liar; Foley liar—all liars!"
"Yes, I know that. Is that why you were fighting Kalinski?"
Ignatz nodded.
"You have been fighting him to avenge Bob and myself, have you?"