The consul looked at them both. He noted that they were both of a size, both probably of the same weight, and both looked as hard as nickel steel. His eye sparkled with a certain joy. "Did you, Mr. Noyes?" It enraged Noyes to be given his proper handle. "And he deserved it," he said angrily. "If you wanted to hit him you should have done it with your hand. But perhaps he would have been too much for you without a weapon," suggested the consul suavely. "Not he," retorted Noyes incautiously. Mr. Johnson looked at them both, and shrugged his shoulders. "I believe he would lick you in a fair fight," he said with a slight sniff, and Noyes exploded. "I could pound him to almighty smash in two minutes," he roared. And the crowd began to see fun "sticking out a foot." They edged up closer and lost their shamefaced look. "He could knock hell out of you," said one of them from behind, and the consul said: "Hush, hush!" Then he turned to Hans. "Could he lick you, my man?" "Not mooch," said Hans defiantly, and a subdued cheer rose from the men behind. "Do you hear that, Mr. Noyes?" asked the consul. "Oh yes, you hear it. Well, it's all highly irregular, of course, but you understand you did wrong to hit him with a telescope, or with anything for the matter of that, and as the ship seems to have been anything but a comfortable one, I suggest that you apologise to this man at any rate, and pay him off." "Ya, ya," said Hans, who at any rate understood the last three words. "I apologise?" gasped Noyes. "By God, I'll lick him first and do that after! Apologise!" "Either that, or I shall back him up in proceeding against you. Unless you would like to settle it with him now in my courtyard, with a couple of pairs of boxing gloves," said Mr. Johnson persuasively, and the crowd behind hummed applause. "Lick him," said Bragg, "and lick him good." He was not anxious for the job himself, but was as eager to see the scrap as the consul. It is so seldom that an officer gets a chance of seeing a real fight, and besides, he did not love Noyes at all. And inside of two minutes the inner court saw the skipper of the _State of Oregon_ and the man from Abo stripped to their waists and singlets. "Pick your own seconds," said the consul gleefully, "and I'll be referee and timekeeper." He forgot there was such a thing as the Foreign Office; but he did not forget some of the habits and customs of Western America. "There's to be no biting, or gouging or kicking," he said, "and when a man goes down he'll have ten seconds to get up in."