China -- History -- Revolution, 1911-1912 -- Fiction; Love stories; River boats -- Fiction; Yangtze River (China) -- Fiction
At last the primitive vigor in this giant was aroused. His eyes blazed.
There was no manner of pleasure in hurting a fellow man of any color;
but since the particular man was asking for it, insisting on it, there
was no longer a choice. The fellow had clearly been trained to this foul
sort of work. That would be Connor's way, to take every advantage, place
a large side bet and then make certain of winning. There was, of course,
no more control of boxing out here on the coast than of gambling or
other vice.
When Tom next came forward, Doane, paying not the slightest heed to his
own defense, exchanged blows with him; planted a right swing that raised
a welt on the yellow cheek. A moment later he landed another on the same
spot.
At the sound of these blows the men about the ringside straightened up
with electric excitement. Then again the long muscular right arm swung,
and the tightly gloved fist crashed through Tom's guard with a force
that knocked him nearly off his balance. Doane promptly brought him back
with a left hook that sounded to the now nearly frantic spectators as if
it must have broken the cheek-bone.
Tom crouched, covered and backed away.
“Have you had enough?” Doane asked. As there was no reply, he repeated
the question in Chinese.
Tom, instead of answering, tried another rush, floundering wildly,
swinging his arms.
Doane stepped firmly forward, swinging up a terrific body blow that
caught the big Chinaman at the pit of the stomach, lifted his feet clear
of the floor and dropped him heavily in a sitting position, from which
he rolled slowly over on his side.
“What are you trying to do?” cried the Manila Kid, above the babel of
excited voices, as he rushed in there and revived his fellow champion.
“What are you trying to do--kill 'im?”
The mate stripped off his wet gloves and tossed them to the floor.
“Teach your man to box fairly,” he replied, “or some one else will.”
With which he stepped out of the ring, drew on his sweater and, with a
courteous bow to the mandarin, went out on deck. There, after depositing
with the purser the winnings paid over by a surly Connor, Dawley Kane
found him.
“Well!” cried the hitherto calm financier, “you put up a remarkable
fight.”
Doane looked down at him, unable to reply. He was still breathing hard;
his thoughts were traveling strange paths. He heard the man saying other
things; asking, at length, about the mandarin.
“He is Kang Yu,” Doane replied now, civilly enough, “Viceroy of
Nanking.”
“No! Really? Why, he was in America!”
“He toured the world. He has been minister at Paris, Berlin, London, I
believe. He is a great statesman--certainly the greatest out here since
Li Hung Chang.”
“No--how extremely interesting!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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