he said. "Heaven didn't
make y'r arm as strong as y' wanted it, eh?" He was very cocky, and
pushed out either cheek importantly with his tongue.

Father Pat was now washing a rapidly closing eye on a sadly battered
countenance. "Shure, Heaven'll deal with ye in its own good time!" he
promised, nodding a portentous head.

Big Tom snorted. "He's been waitin' and waitin'," he observed; "--ever
since he first met me. That's why he give me such a hidin'!"

One-Eye, the stains of carnage wiped from lip and chin, peered up
through a tiny slit between those puffing lids. "Big as a barn," he
asserted, but without temper. "Big as a Poland Chinee pig! All beef! All
fat!" And to Johnnie, sunk in his quilt, "Don't y' beller, sonny, _I_
ain't got no grunt comin'. I done my best. But he's stronger'n me,
that's all they is _to_ it, and heftier. But it all goes to show that if
_I_ ain't no match for him, he's lower'n a sheep-eatin' greaser t' go
hit a kid--'r a _girl_!" Before that eye slit closed, he crawled to
where his hat, coat and gauntlets were, took them up, and fell to
warping them into shape again. "But y'r time'll come, sonny!" he vowed.
"Y'r time'll come! Jes' y' wait!"

"Well, I didn't keep you waitin'," bragged Barber, with another loud
laugh. "And if there's anybody else--" His look sought the priest. "Why,
say! You're a fighter, ain't y', Father Pat? Wasn't y' in the trenches?
I wonder y' don't lick me y'reself. Ho! ha! ha! ha! ha!"

At that, the red anger spread itself among the stubble of the same hue
on the Father's still unshaved jaws. "No," he answered grimly, speaking
with the thicker brogue that always came into his English along with his
wrath. "No, Oi can't give ye the dustin' that's comin' t' ye, Barber."

"It'll take a man t' lick me," declared the longshoreman proudly. He
thumped his chest. "Yes, sir, a reg'lar-sized man! Now, Furman, he says
that, barrin' the World Champion, 'r some guy like that, there ain't a
man standin' on two feet in this whole country that can down me!" He
thrust out his lower lip.

"Ha-a-a-a!" breathed the priest, scornful. He helped guide One-Eye to
the kitchen chair. "Well, the man Oi once was, Oi presinted him t' me
counthry. So here's what's left av me. But, Barber, punishment's comin'
t' ye! Mar-rk me wor-r-rd!"

Suddenly Big Tom gave a shout. "Say!" he cried. "Maybe _here's_ a gent
that'd like t' try his hand at lickin' me!" For the hall door had opened
again, and anoth