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[Illustration: "The lion sprang through the air among the terrified
group." --(See page 71.)]
A YOUNG HERO;
OR,
FIGHTING TO WIN.
BY EDWARD S. ELLIS,
_Author of_
"Adrift in the Wilds," etc., etc.
ILLUSTRATED.
[Illustration: Logo]
NEW YORK:
A. L. BURT, PUBLISHER.
COPYRIGHT 1888, BY A. L. BURT.
A YOUNG HERO.
CHAPTER I.
THE PEACEMAKER.
"A fight! A fight! Form a ring!" A dozen or more excited boys shouted
these words, and, rushing forward, hastily formed a ring around two
playmates who stood in the middle of the road, their hats off, eyes
glaring, fists clenched, while they panted with anger, and were on the
point of flying at one another with the fury of young wildcats.
They had been striking, kicking and biting a minute before over some
trifling dispute, and they had now stopped to take breath and gather
strength before attacking each other again with a fierceness which had
become all the greater from the brief rest.
"Give it to him, Sam! Black his eyes for him! Hit him under the ear!
Bloody his nose!"
Thus shouted the partisans of Sammy McClay, who had thrown down his
school books, and pitched into his opponent, as though he meant to
leave nothing of him.
The friends of Joe Hunt were just as loud and urgent.
"Sail in, Joe! You can whip him before he knows it! Kick him! Don't be
a coward! You've got him!"
A party of boys and girls were on their way home from the Tottenville
public school, laughing, romping and frolicking with each other, when,
all at once, like a couple of bantam chickens, these two youngsters
began fighting.
The girls looked on in a horrified way, whispering to each other, and
declaring that they meant to tell Mr. McCurtis, the teacher, including
also the respective mothers of the young pugilists.
The other boys, as is nearly always the case, did their utmost to urge
on the fight, and, closing about Sam and Joe, taunted them in loud
voices, and appealed to them to resume hostilities at once.
The fighters seemed to be equally matched, and, as they panted and
glared, each waited for the other to renew the struggle by striking the
first blow.
"You just hit me if you dare! that's all I want!" exclaimed Sammy
McClay, shaking his head so vigorously that he almost bumped his nose
against that of Joe Hunt, who was just as ferocious, as he called back:
"You touch me, Sam McClay, just touch me! I dare you! double, double
dare you."
Matters were fast coming to the exploding point, but not fast enough to
suit the audience. Jimmy Emery picked up a chip, and running forward,
balanced it in a delicate position on the shoulder of Sam McClay, and,
addressing his opponent said: "Knock that off, Joe!"
"Yes, knock it off!" shouted Sam, "I dare you to knock it off!"
"Who's afraid?" demanded Joe, looking at the chip, with an expression
which showed he meant to flip it to the ground.
"Well, you just try it--that's all!"
Joe was in the very act of upsetting the bit of wood, when a boy about
their own age, with a flapping straw hat, and with his trousers rolled
far above his knees, ran in between the two, and used his arms with so
much vigor that the contestants were thrown quite a distance apart.
"What's the matter with you fellows?" demanded this boy, glancing from
one to the other. "What do you want to make fools of yourselves for?"
"He run against me," said Sammy McClay, "and knocked me over Jim Emery."
"Well, what of it?" asked the peacemaker. "Will it make you feel any
better to get your head cracked? What's the matter of _you_, Joe Hunt?"
he added, turning his glance without changing his position, toward the
other pugilist.
"What did he punch me for, when I stubbed my toe and run agin him?" and
Joe showed a disposition just then to move around his questioner, so as
to get at the offender.
The other boys did not like this interference with their enjoyment,
and called on the peacemaker to let them have it out; but he stood his
ground, and shaking his right fist at Sammy McClay, and his left at Joe
Hunt, he told them they must let each other alone, or he would whip
them both.
This created some laughter, for the lad was no older than they, and
hardly as tall as either; but there is a great deal in the manner
of a man or boy. If his flashing eye, his stern voice, and look of
determination show that he means what he says, or is in dead earnest,
his opponent generally yields.
At the critical juncture, the girls added their voices in favor of
peace, and their champion, stooping down, picked up the hats from the
ground, and jammed them upon their owners' heads with a force that
nearly threw them off their feet.
"That's enough! now come on!"
Sam and Joe walked along, rather sullenly at first. They glowered on
each other, shook their heads, muttered and seemed on the point of
renewing the contest more than once; but the passions of childhood are
brief, and the storm soon blew over. Before the boys and girls had
reached the cross-roads, Sam McClay and Joe Hunt were playing with each
other like the best of friends, as indeed they were.
The name of the lad who had stopped the fight was Fred Sheldon, and he
is the hero of this story.