“Let us see,” said he to Walter, “if you are as ready with your fists as you are with your tongue. The officers of the boat don’t care to have any trouble aboard, so, as we’ll tie up to a wharf in a few minutes, let’s take our affairs ashore, and have it out without any interference.”
“Good!” cried Ned Chandler. “That suits us down to the ground. Let it be ashore, by all means.”
Acting upon one impulse the passengers streamed out upon the deck; there was a hurrying of deck hands, a sharp calling of orders and the jingling of the pilot’s bell. Then with a great splashing of her wheels and a straining of hawsers, the “Mediterranean” lay quietly at the wharf.
Instantly the gangplank was run out and the singing negroes began to roll on the cargo. Walter Jordan and Ned vaulted over the rail; a horde of passengers followed, among them being Colonel Huntley and Barker.
CHAPTER IV
THE FIGHT
At the head of the wharf was an open space, and when they reached this Barker halted, and stripped off his coat.
“No use going any farther, gentlemen,” said he with a wicked grin. “I’d just as lief smash him here as anywhere else.”
Walter promptly pulled off his own coat and waistcoat; then he turned up his cuffs. Ned Chandler, his hand upon Walter’s arm, whispered advice, his blue eyes all the time fixed upon Barker.
“Watch him,” cautioned Ned. “Don’t let him get hold of you, or throw you, if you can help it. Stand off, and hit him back as he comes into you.”
Both of the young fellows were fully aware of the lawless nature of the combat into which Walter was about entering. Those were rough days; and the river-men, the pioneers, adventurers and planters who used the great stream were rough men; and so their ways of settling disputes were apt to be primitive. Force was what usually told; the man who fought the most savage and relentless battle was almost invariably the victor. Skill was little considered, as is usually the case in the outposts of the world; the man with the bulging muscles and the flail-like arms was the man figured on to conquer; and now as young Jordan and Barker prepared for the fight there were few who considered that the former had a chance to escape being maimed.