"Half a second," said Jimmy Silver--"what length rounds?" "Two minutes?" said Kennedy to Walton. "All right," growled Walton. "Two minutes, then, and half a minute in between." "Are you both ready?" asked Jimmy, from his seat on the chest of drawers. Kennedy and Walton advanced into the middle of the impromptu ring. There was dead silence for a moment. "Time!" said Jimmy Silver. XIII THE FIGHT IN THE DORMITORY Stating it broadly, fighters may be said to be divided into two classes--those who are content to take two blows if they can give three in return, and those who prefer to receive as little punishment as possible, even at the expense of scoring fewer points themselves. Kennedy's position, when Jimmy Silver called time, was peculiar. On all the other occasions on which he had fought--with the gloves on in the annual competition, and at the assault-at-arms--he had gone in for the policy of taking all that the other man liked to give him, and giving rather more in exchange. Now, however, he was obliged to alter his whole style. For a variety of reasons it was necessary that he should come out of this fight with as few marks as possible. To begin with, he represented, in a sense, the Majesty of the Law. He was tackling Walton more by way of an object-lesson to the Kayite mutineers than for his own personal satisfaction. The object-lesson would lose in impressiveness if he were compelled to go about for a week or so with a pair of black eyes, or other adornments of a similar kind. Again--and this was even more important--if he was badly marked the affair must come to the knowledge of the headmaster. Being a prefect, and in the sixth form, he came into contact with the Head every day, and the disclosure of the fact that he had been engaged in a pitched battle with a member of his house, who was, in addition to other disadvantages, very low down in the school, would be likely to lead to unpleasantness. A school prefect of Eckleton was supposed to be hedged about with so much dignity that he could quell turbulent inferiors with a glance. The idea of one of the august body lowering himself to the extent of emphasising his authority with the bare knuckle would scandalise the powers. So Kennedy, rising at the call of time from the bed on which he sat, came up to the scratch warily.