CHAPTER XXI.
AN UNEXPECTED VICTORY.
The captain’s order was a general one and addressed to no one in particular. The sailors stood still, therefore, till the captain exclaimed again, stamping fiercely:—
“Seize him, I say, and strip him.”
With a grin of enjoyment Jack Rodman started forward, and prepared to obey the captain’s command. He expected to be supported by others of the crew, but found himself alone. Still he was taller and stouter than Harry, and felt confident of an easy victory over him.
When our hero saw him approach, he said, in a cool, collected manner, by no means intimidated by the prospect of a conflict with his superior in size:—
“Stand off, Jack Rodman, if you know what’s good for yourself!”
“What can you do?” sneered Jack; and he gave a glance at the captain for encouragement.
“Give him a thrashing!” said the captain, anticipating with pleasure the utter discomfiture of Harry, who, so far as appearances went, was decidedly the weaker of the two. But appearances are sometimes deceitful, and Jack Rodman would not have been by any means so confident of an easy victory, had he been aware that our hero, as previously stated, was no mean proficient in the art of self-defence, having been initiated in the science of boxing by a young man from New York, who spent a summer in Vernon.
“A ring! a ring!” shouted the sailors. “Let ’em have it out!”