“Gracious! what’s struck us?” cried Jerry, in alarm. “Feels to me as if we were going to upset,” replied Nuggy, his face growing pale. “Just listen to the wind whistle!” “I hope we don’t go to the bottom,” went on Nickerson. He did not like the ocean, and had come along on the trip only at the earnest solicitation of Nuggy, who hated to travel alone. He was no sailor, but so far the mildness of the weather had kept him from becoming seasick. Both of the young men felt that they must go on deck, and started for the companionway side by side. They had just reached the foot of the steps, when a dark object loomed up before them. It was a soldier, who was actually rolling down the companionway. The man plumped with such force into Jerry Nickerson that the latter was sent sprawling. “Hi! what do you mean by knocking me down?” spluttered Nickerson, as soon as he could get wind enough to speak. “Vot’s der matter mit you?” was the return. “Vy didn’t you git out of der vay, ven you see me coming, hey?” The speaker was Carl Stummer, and he was in no humor for wasting words. “You Dutch idiot!” roared Nickerson. “You bumped into me on purpose!” “That’s what he did,” put in Nuggy, who had not liked Carl since the day they had had the talk concerning Gilbert. “Jerry, you ought to teach him a lesson for that.” “I will,” answered Jerry; and, as the German soldier arose to his feet, Nickerson strode forward, and gave him a blow in the chest which knocked him up against a near-by railing. “That will teach you to behave yourself in the future.” In his school-days Nickerson had been a good deal of a bully, and this at times cropped out, upon the slightest provocation. As Carl staggered back, Nuggy gave a low laugh. “Good for you, Jerry! He deserved it,” he said. Carl’s face grew as red as a beet; and his eyes--those eyes which were sky-blue, and generally as mild as those of a lamb--flashed fire. “So I vos von Dutch idiot, hey?” he demanded angrily. “And you vos teach me von lesson, not so? Meppe I vos teach dot lesson, hey? How you like dot, hey? und dot?” He hauled off suddenly; and two blows straight from the shoulder made Jerry see stars, and sent him staggering into Nuggy. A third blow followed, which loosened one of Nickerson’s front teeth, and made him drop upon a near-by settee, dazed and bewildered. “Haf you got enough?” demanded Carl, as he followed his opponent with fists clenched for another blow. “Don’t! Don’t!” cried Nickerson. “Hi! let my friend alone!” came from Nuggy, in alarm. He was afraid Nickerson would be killed. “Let him alone, I say, you clown!” “Ton’t call me a klown!” roared Carl. “Of you do, I’ll gif you a lickin’, too!” And he squared off at Nuggy in a manner which caused that unworthy one to fall back in dismay. By this time the attention of a number of soldiers who were near was attracted, and they gathered around. “A fight, boys!” cried one. “The Dutchman is going to polish off one of the newspaper men!”