“Shucks! One way to whitewash a little streak of yellow.” This with a sneer.
Suddenly the kindly smile on Gus’s manly face faded out. He stepped quickly in front of Siebold.
“You can’t say that to me! I’ll fight you here and now; bare knuckles if you like.”
Mr. Gay overheard the conversation and came back to the boys.
“None of that here,” he said. “If you want to have a friendly bout with the gloves, all right—even to a finish—but no bad blood.”
Gus turned away. So did Siebold. Sadler, who was tired of being punched at Siebold’s request, would prefer to do a little looking on. With satisfaction he saw Mr. Gay take his hat and leave the building. The instructor may have seen a scrap on the way and wished to evade responsibility. He was anxious to be popular with the boys.
Sadler offered a few suggestions. Immediately several boys surrounded good-natured Gus and shoved him into the open center of the room. Then they did the same to Siebold, but with more verbal persuasiveness and in a moment the two were facing each other, and a pair of boxing-gloves was handed to each.