d or
fourth round--you know, time 'm in a rush an' hand it to 'm just as
easy. It's a lead-pipe cinch, I tell you. Honest to God, Saxon, it's a
shame to take the money."

"But I hate to think of you all battered up," she temporized. "If I
didn't love you so, it might be different. And then, too, you might get
hurt."

Billy laughed in contemptuous pride of youth and brawn.

"You won't know I've been in a fight, except that we'll own Hazel
an' Hattie there. An' besides, Saxon, I just gotta stick my fist in
somebody's face once in a while. You know I can go for months peaceable
an' gentle as a lamb, an' then my knuckles actually begin to itch to
land on something. Now, it's a whole lot sensibler to land on Young
Sandow an' get three hundred for it, than to land on some hayseed an'
get hauled up an' fined before some justice of the peace. Now take
another squint at Hazel an' Hattie. They're regular farm furniture, good
to breed from when we get to that valley of the moon. An' they're heavy
enough to turn right into the plowin', too."

The evening of the fight at quarter past eight, Saxon parted from Billy.
At quarter past nine, with hot water, ice, and everything ready in
anticipation, she heard the gate click and Billy's step come up the
porch. She had agreed to the fight much against her better judgment, and
had regretted her consent every minute of the hour she had just waited;
so that, as she opened the front door, she was expectant of any sort of
a terrible husband-wreck. But the Billy she saw was precisely the Billy
she had parted from.

"There was no fights" she cried, in so evident disappointment that he
laughed.

"They was all yellin' 'Fake! Fake!' when I left, an' wantin' their money
back."

"Well, I've got YOU," she laughed, leading him in, though secretly she
sighed farewell to Hazel and Hattie.

"I stopped by the way to get something for you that you've been wantin'
some time," Billy said casually. "Shut your eyes an' open your hand; an'
when you open your eyes you'll find it grand," he chanted.

Into her hand something was laid that was very heavy and very cold, and
when her eyes opened she saw it was a stack of fifteen twenty-dollar
gold pieces.

"I told you it was like takin' money from a corpse," he exulted, as
he emerged grinning from the whirlwind of punches, whacks, and hugs in
which she had enveloped him. "They wasn't no fight at all. D 'ye want
to know how long it lasted? Just twenty-se