All this was heard by several persons, including Billings, who, concealed behind his immense shirt-collar, was sitting in the hotel office. He listened quietly for a few minutes, but when Ben began to include all reporters in his abuse the little man could no longer stand it. He jumped up and, stepping squarely in front of the bully, declared that he was a reporter, and demanded that the other make an instant apology for his words, or prepare to suffer the consequences.
“And who will make me suffer, I should like to know?” cried Ben, gazing with contempt upon the absurd figure cut by this champion of reporters.
“Perhaps I will,” answered Billings, affecting his languid drawl, “or perhaps I will leave it to my friend, ‘Lord Steerem,’ don’t you know.”
“You impudent puppy!” screamed Ben in a fury, now recognizing Billings as the reporter who had made him the laughing-stock of all New London. “If you weren’t so small as to be beneath contempt I’d thrash you to within an inch of your life. Now clear out of here before I hurt you, and don’t you ever dare come in my way again.”
“I’m a little threshing-machine myself,” answered Billings, coolly, “and I am geared up to just about your size, Mr. Bigman, So come on if you dare. I don’t care that”—snapping his fingers in Ben’s face—“for you or your bluster.”
Ben aimed a blow at him, which the reporter cleverly dodged. Before there was a chance for another, the by-standers, who were vastly entertained by Billings’ exhibition of pluck, rushed in and separated the two, declaring that Ben ought to be ashamed of himself to strike at a fellow not half his size.
Ben sulkily left the hotel, vowing vengeance against both Billings and Myles, while the little man, who was prevented from following him, entertained his captors with the story of “Lord Steerem,” the famous coxswain.
The division superintendent was a harsh man, who entertained no affection for his nephew, and had only given him his position because he was his brother’s son. He suspected Ben’s unfitness for the place, and had been on the point of discharging him several times. Now, when Ben entered the office, he found his uncle greatly dissatisfied with his conduct of affairs during the preceding four days.