"Then you know where it is."
"I don't know nothin' of your basket."
"You pulled my hat over my eyes on purpose to steal my basket."
"No, I didn't. You insulted me, that's why I did it."
"Tell me where my basket is, or I'll lick you," said Paul, incensed.
"I ain't nothin' to do with your basket."
"Take that, then, for pulling my hat over my eyes," and Paul, suiting
the action to the word, dealt Mike a staggering blow in the face.
"I'll murder you!" shouted Mike, furiously, dashing at Paul with a blow
which might have leveled him, if he had not fended it off.
Paul was not quarrelsome, but he knew how to fight, and he was prepared
now to fight in earnest, indignant as he was at the robbery which
entailed upon him a loss he could ill sustain.
"I'll give you all you want," he said, resolutely, eyeing Mike warily,
and watching a chance to give him another blow.
The contest was brief, being terminated by the sudden and unwelcome
arrival of a policeman.
"What's this?" he asked authoritatively, surveying the combatants; Paul,
with his flushed face, and Mike, whose nose was bleeding freely from a
successful blow of his adversary.
"He pitched into me for nothin'," said Mike, glaring at Paul, and
rubbing his bloody nose on the sleeve of his ragged coat.
"That isn't true," said Paul, excitedly. "He came up while I was selling
prize packages of candy in front of the post office, and pulled my hat
over my eyes, while another boy grabbed my basket.
Pages:
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45