hand, the code of fair fighting obtained hardly at all.
The long spikes of river-boots made an admirable weapon in the straight
kick. I have seen men whose faces were punctured as thickly as though
by small-pox, where the steel points had penetrated. In a free-for-all
knock-down-and-drag-out, kicking, gouging, and biting are all
legitimate. Anything to injure the other man, provided always you do
not knife him. And when you take a half dozen of these enduring, active,
muscular, and fiery men, not one entertaining in his innermost heart
the faintest hesitation or fear, and set them at each other with the
lightning tirelessness of so many wild-cats, you get as hard a fight as
you could desire. And they seem to like it.

One old fellow, a good deal of a character in his way, used to be on the
"drive" for a firm lumbering near Six Lakes. He was intensely loyal to
his "Old Fellows," and every time he got a little "budge" in him, he
instituted a raid on the town owned by a rival firm. So frequent and so
severe did these battles become that finally the men were informed that
another such expedition would mean instant discharge. The rule had its
effect. The raids ceased.

But one day old Dan visited the saloon once too often. He became very
warlike. The other men merely laughed, for they were strong enough
themselves to recognize firmness in others, and it never occurred to
them that they could disobey so absolute a command. So finally Dan
started out quite alone.

He invaded the enemy's camp, attempted to clean out the saloon with a
billiard cue single handed, was knocked down, and would have been kicked
to death as he lay on the floor if he had not succeeded in rolling under
the billiard table where the men's boots could not reach him. As it was,
his clothes were literally torn to ribbons, one eye was blacked, his
nose broken, one ear hung to its place by a mere shred of skin, and his
face and flesh were ripped and torn everywhere by the "corks" on the
boots. Any but a riverman would have qualified for the hospital. Dan
rolled to the other side of the table, made a sudden break, and escaped.

But his fighting blood was not all spilled. He raided the butcher-shop,
seized the big carving knife, and returned to the battle field.

The enemy decamped--rapidly--some of them through the window. Dan
managed to get in but one blow. He ripped the coat down the man's back
as neatly as though it had been done with shears, one clean