... only I
kept on my feet an' fought, or took the count to eight an' got up, an'
stalled an' covered an' whanged away. I don't know what I done, except I
must a-done like that, because I wasn't there. I don't know a thing
from the thirteenth, when he sent me to the mat on my head, till the
eighteenth.

"Where was I? Oh, yes. I opened my eyes, or one eye, because I had only
one that would open. An' there I was, in my corner, with the towels
goin' an' ammonia in my nose an' Bill Murphy with a chunk of ice at the
back of my neck. An' there, across the ring, I could see the Chicago
Terror, an' I had to do some thinkin' to remember I was fightin' him. It
was like I'd been away somewhere an' just got back. 'What round's this
comin'?' I ask Bill. 'The eighteenth,' says he. 'The hell,' I says.
'What's come of all the other rounds? The last I was fightin' in was the
thirteenth.' 'You're a wonder,' says Bill. 'You've ben out four rounds,
only nobody knows it except me. I've ben tryin' to get you to quit all
the time.' Just then the gong sounds, an' I can see the Terror startin'
for me. 'Quit,' says Bill, makin' a move to throw in the towel. 'Not on
your life,' I says. 'Drop it, Bill.' But he went on wantin' me to quit.
By that time the Terror had come across to my corner an' was standin'
with his hands down, lookin' at me. The referee was lookin', too, an'
the house was that quiet, lookin', you could hear a pin drop. An' my
head was gettin' some clearer, but not much.

"'You can't win,' Bill says.

"'Watch me,' says I. An' with that I make a rush for the Terror,
catchin' him unexpected. I'm that groggy I can't stand, but I just keep
a-goin', wallopin' the Terror clear across the ring to his corner, where
he slips an' falls, an' I fall on top of 'm. Say, that crowd goes crazy.

"Where was I?--My head's still goin' round I guess. It's buzzin' like a
swarm of bees."

"You'd just fallen on top of him in his corner," Saxon prompted.

"Oh, yes. Well, no sooner are we on our feet--an' I can't stand--I rush
'm the same way back across to my corner an' fall on 'm. That was luck.
We got up, an' I'd a-fallen, only I clenched an' held myself up by him.
'I got your goat,' I says to him. 'An' now I'm goin' to eat you up.'

"I hadn't his goat, but I was playin' to get a piece of it, an' I got
it, rushin' 'm as soon as the referee drags us apart an' fetchin' 'm
a lucky wallop in the stomach that steadied 'm an' made him almighty
careful