We stripped to our shirts and trousers and moved out into the moonlight. Katherine hovered in the background, but made no attempt either to interfere or to go away. Gerald had disappeared. I looked at Sam’s big fists. I knew he was taller and heavier than I was, but I was not afraid of him; instead, I had a cold determination to lick him. I felt elated; I was glad Gerald had drawn back, since it gave me this chance of showing Katherine what a hero I was. We chose seconds, and there was a time-keeper, though no one had a watch, for mine was wound up and safe under my pillow at home. We had little science, but were mortally in earnest. At the beginning of the second round the nervous tremor of Sam’s mouth as he stepped into the ring gave me a cruel pleasure. I did not believe very much in his pluck, and I was now quite confident as to the finish. It was in the middle of the third round, and we were both panting and bleeding, when Michael, the policeman, appeared on the scene, springing up as if from the bowels of the earth. How he came to be out of bed at such an hour, and in this particular spot, I never discovered, but he stepped in between us and stopped the fight. “Well now, this is nice goings on! Will you tell me what it’s all about?” “You go quietly to hell,” said Sam in a low voice. The others chimed in. “It’s none of your business, Michael, we’re not in the town.” “Do you tell me that, now? Well, I’ll be troubling you to go home to your beds every one of yous. This is no place for you, Miss,” he added, having discovered Katherine in the background, “with a lot of young rapscallions. I’ll see you safe home.” But Katherine did not move. “Let them finish, Michael. Nobody’ll ever know you were here. There’ll be no talk.” Michael wavered. The presence of Katherine obviously both troubled and puzzled him, for of course he knew who she was. He turned to her again, but she had withdrawn into the shadow of the rocks, whither he followed her, and they whispered together in inaudible tones. Then he came back. Katherine had disappeared; possibly she had followed Gerald, who would hardly have gone very far without her; at any rate I could not look after her now. “Well, I suppose you’ll be wanting to settle this,” said Michael, doubtfully. His words were received with an outburst of cheers and laughter. A faint greyness of dawn was already spreading over the eastern sky. “Time!” called George Edge, and I noticed that he had actually borrowed Michael’s big silver watch. CHAPTER XIV