Urged on in this fashion on either side, we went at it hammer and tongs, ‘Ugly’ getting more cautious from his repeated familiarity with the deck planking, and fighting more scientifically after the first two or three rounds.
The consequence of this was that he got in one or two nasty blows with his sledge-hammer fists on the side of my head, which made my ears ache, besides giving me a fine black eye on the port side.
He could not manage to land me a facer, however, straight out, try all that he could; and presently, on my feeling particularly ‘riled’ by a backhanded clout he succeeded in landing on my cheek, I drew out my left, and, driving it home forwards with all my strength, let him have it straight on the nose.
“Faith, ye tapped his claret for him that time, mabouchal; it’s stramin’ out all over the dick.”
Hardly had my chum made this observation, so highly expressive of his unconcealed delight, ere ‘Ugly,’ wiping away the blood from his face with the sleeve of his jumper, and clutching hold of the lanyard round his neck, to the end of which his knife was attached, made a spring at me from the knee of his second, where he had sat dazed for half a moment, giving vent to a cry that was more like the howl of a wild animal than anything else.
I put up my hands mechanically, though I had hardly then imagined he would have come so soon at me again; intending, however, more to guard his attack than hit him any blow, for I really thought he had received quite enough punishment already.
But he beat down my guard as easily as if my arms really had been made of pipeclay, and then I felt a stinging sensation through one of these and my left side, just as if I had run foul of a jelly-fish when swimming off the ‘Hot Walls,’ as I have done sometimes when bathing.
“Begorrah, the thafe’s stabbed ye!” exclaimed Mick, putting his arms round me as I fell back. “Whare now is ye hoort, Tom, alannah?”
“Oh, it’s nothing,” I said with a laugh, as soon as I got back my breath, which had been knocked out of me by the rush ‘Ugly’ made, the knife having only grazed my ribs, while it had given an ugly gash to my arm; though, probably, had I not guarded the blow, the sharp weapon with which my antagonist had only been supplied, like the rest of us, that very morning, would as likely as not have ‘settled my hash,’ as father used to say. “Pray don’t make a fuss of it, Mick, or any of you fellows. It will all rub off when it’s dry!”