exhaustion. He saw the ring of boys, howling
like barbarians as he went down at last, writhing in the throes of
nausea, the blood streaming from his nose and the tears from his bruised
eyes.

"Poor little shaver," he murmured. "And you're just as badly licked now.
You're beaten to a pulp. You're down and out."

But the vision of that first fight still lingered under his eyelids, and
as he watched he saw it dissolve and reshape into the series of fights
which had followed. Six months later Cheese-Face (that was the boy) had
whipped him again. But he had blacked Cheese-Face's eye that time. That
was going some. He saw them all, fight after fight, himself always
whipped and Cheese-Face exulting over him. But he had never run away. He
felt strengthened by the memory of that. He had always stayed and taken
his medicine. Cheese-Face had been a little fiend at fighting, and had
never once shown mercy to him. But he had stayed! He had stayed with
it!

Next, he saw a narrow alley, between ramshackle frame buildings. The end
of the alley was blocked by a one-story brick building, out of which
issued the rhythmic thunder of the presses, running off the first edition
of the Enquirer. He was eleven, and Cheese-Face was thirteen, and they
both carried the Enquirer. That was why they were there, waiting for
their papers. And, of course, Cheese-Face had picked on him again, and
there was another fight that was indeterminate, because at quarter to
four the door of the press-room was thrown open and the gang of boys
crowded in to fold their papers.

"I'll lick you to-morrow," he heard Cheese-Face promise; and he heard his
own voice, piping and trembling with unshed tears, agreeing to be there
on the morrow.

And he had come there the next day, hurrying from school to be there
first, and beating Cheese-Face by two minutes. The other boys said he
was all right, and gave him advice, pointing out his faults as a scrapper
and promising him victory if he carried out their instructions. The same
boys gave Cheese-Face advice, too. How they had enjoyed the fight! He
paused in his recollections long enough to envy them the spectacle he and
Cheese-Face had put up. Then the fight was on, and it went on, without
rounds, for thirty minutes, until the press-room door was opened.

He watched the youthful apparition of himself, day after day, hurrying
from school to the Enquirer alley. He could not walk very fast. He was
st