The Battleship Boys at Sea Part 30

"Some one wishes to fight me, is that it?" questioned Dan.

"That's about it, shipmate."

Dan gazed at them inquiringly.

"Who?"

"Bill Kester."

"I might have known it."

"It's only fair to tell you, Mr. Dynamite, that he's about the sc.r.a.ppiest sc.r.a.pper on board the 'Long Island.' We've been thinking of getting one of the men from aboard the 'Michigan' to come over and whale the daylights out of him some of these days. He's got to get it before he'll quit picking trouble with other folks. You're under-size and lighter than Bill, even if you did lay him out the other day. But because of your size you've got a right to refuse, if you want to,"

continued the sailor.

It was plain, however, that he secretly hoped Dan would accept the challenge to do battle with the ship's bully.

"No, boys, I have had one fight, though it wasn't much of a fight after all. You know what happened? I was called before the mast and let go with a warning. Next time they would put me ash.o.r.e and tell me to go home. I wish to stay in the service. When I fight, let it be under the Flag I serve."

"Nothing of the sort. Bill will be telling, all over the ship, that you are afraid to meet him, and maybe he'll call you a coward. Of course we fellows know you ain't, Dynie." ("Dynie," since Dan's first outburst with Kester, had become a favorite nickname for the boy.)

"He had better not," Dan made answer in a low, tense voice, a dull flush suffusing his cheeks. "If he does that, I may be tempted to use a marline spike on him."

"Then you'd sure get out of the service," replied the sailor.

"You tell him to keep away and let me alone. If he doesn't I'll defend myself, as I did before, that is, if I can. I am not looking for trouble, but I'll face it if it comes."

"Shall we tell him that?"

"Tell him by all means, if you think best. He does not interest me at all."

"You think it over, Dynie. We'll talk with you later. We'll tell Bill something to satisfy him till you make up your mind."

"I have made up my mind. I won't fight."

The committee returned to the group, where they talked for some moments, Dan observing that Kester was scowling more ferociously than usual and his voice rising higher.

"He's a quitter! He's a coward!" exclaimed Bill.

Dan rose hastily and walked away.

"Trouble seems to be getting right in my way. If I don't try to push it out of the way I fall over it. What's a fellow to do?"

"What's wrong, Dan?" questioned Sam, overtaking his companion at that moment. He had observed Dan's troubled face.

"Oh, nothing much. They want me to fight that fellow Kester."

"Have they told you so?"

"Yes."

"When?"

"Just now. Two of the boys came to me to ask if I would fight him."

"What did you say?"

"I told them I wouldn't do it, unless he forced me to do so in self-defense, and that then I'd use a marline spike on him."

Sam shook his head thoughtfully.

"It doesn't seem to surprise you any," complained Dan.

"No, I can't say that it does. I had suspected something of the sort was in the wind. Are you afraid of him, Dan?"

"Afraid of him?"

"Yes."

"No, I am not afraid of him," answered the lad in a quiet voice. "But I have had my little lesson through your fate, you know. Bread and water don't agree with my digestive organs. Why, what do you think would happen to me were I to get mixed up in that sort of a row?"

"Nothing."

"What do you mean?"

"I hear that when men on board these ships have a misunderstanding, they are permitted to fight it out under proper conditions."

"They do?"

"Yes. But the battles, I have heard, don't amount to much. The fighters are provided with boxing gloves and the fight is more of a boxing match than a battle. When it has gone far enough it is stopped, the winner being the one who has scored the most points. One of the men was telling me about it. It isn't very different from the boxing matches you used to take part in when we were in the High School, is it?" suggested Sam.

"No," answered Dan somewhat doubtfully. "But this Kester is a loafer, and I do not like to trust him. I am not timid, but I want to win promotion in the service."

"The others will see that you have fair play."

"You advise me to meet him then?" questioned Dan.

"Of course I do. I wish he had challenged me to fight him. I owe him one."

"I am surprised at you, Sam. You forget you have recently been in trouble for fighting and now you turn around and urge me to go in for a bout with a fellow who intends to knock my head off if he is able to do it."

"Not a fight, a boxing match, Dynie," grinned Sam.

Dan laughed.

"A nice gentlemanly, hand-shaking sort of a bout, eh? Well I'll see."

"Are you going to meet him?"