I did have then, but I want more. I said then that I'd never been
beaten for long at a time. I've been waiting for you."

"A man don't have to wait for me very long. But say, this is all rank
foolishness. I've got nothing against you; and as for what I said about
the woman, why, I'm willing to apologize, although I don't know what it
was."

"You will apologize, but not till I get through with you. Take off your
coat."

"You beat any fellow I ever saw. I don't want to fight; I want to fish."

"I don't want to fish, I want to fight. Take off your coat or I'll knock
you down in it."

"All right, my son." He threw his coat on a stump. Milford was in his
shirt sleeves. "Wait a moment," said Dorsey. "You have brought this
thing about, and I want to tell you that I won't let you off as easy as
I did the last time."

They went at it. Dorsey fell sprawling. He scrambled to his feet with
trash in his hair and blood in his mouth. Milford knocked him over a
stump. He got up again and came forward, cutting the capers of a tricky
approach, but Milford caught him with a surprising blow and sent him to
grass again. This time he did not get up. He squirmed about on the
ground. Milford took him under the arms and lifted him to his knees. "Go
away," he muttered, his head drooping. "You've--you've broken my jaw."

Milford ran to the lake and brought water in his hat. Dorsey was sitting
up when he returned.

"You've knocked out two of my teeth," he mumbled.

"Here, let me bathe your face."

"Biggest fool thing I ever saw," Dorsey blubbered through the water
applied to the mouth. "I told you I'd apologize."

"Yes, and you may do so now. Do you?"

"Of course. What else can I do?"

"I'm almost sorry I hit you so hard."

"Almost! I don't stop at that. I don't want you to say anything about
it," he added. "It would hurt my business."

"A horse kicked you," said Milford. "You're all right now. You can go to
the house."

"I'm going to town by the first train. I'm done up. You've been
practicing. You ought to make a success of yourself if that's the sort
of fellow you are."

Milford helped him put on his coat. "Now, I wish I could do something
for you," he said. "No matter what I do, I always get the worst of it."

"You didn't get the worst of this, by a long shot."

"Yes. Now I've got to grieve over it. I've been trying to do right, but
the cards are against me."

"You needn't grieve over me. You have licked a good man."