"In the first place Kalinski was fighting with Ignatz----"
"He--he started it, the----" interrupted Kalinski.
"Don't say anything you will be sorry for," interjected Steve.
"After he had knocked Brodsky down he began kicking the boy, and with the entire approval of the crowd," added Jarvis. "Wouldn't you have sailed into him if you had been in my place?"
"I should have been a coward if I had not. And now, Kalinski, I have a few words to say to you. You have used us about as shabbily as one person could use another. We are even now; you have got what you deserve, but hereafter keep away from us. Don't you dare speak to either of us. Try any tricks and it will be the worse for you. Now get out of here!"
Steve gave the Pole a shove, Kalinski hurrying away as fast as his weakened legs would carry him, the fellow uttering threats and shaking his fists as he went.
"We will go home now," announced Steve. "You come with us, Ignatz," he added, taking an arm of the Polish boy. "I am sorry this thing happened, for I had hoped we should be able to keep out of further trouble. We will get a bad name if we don't stop having so many rows."
"But how are we going to help it?" protested Bob. "I can't stand around and see a boy abused by a big brute like Kalinski, without taking a hand."
"You did right, but I am sorry it occurred; that's all."
Reaching their boarding place, Rush took Bob and Ignatz to his room. He looked Jarvis over from head to feet. The bandage about the latter's head was now stained a dark red, where the fists of the pit boss had pummeled him, while the burns on the lad's hands, that had been healed over, were now raw and painful. Rush quickly bathed and redressed his companion's wounds, then turned his attention to Brodsky. The latter had received some pretty hard knocks, and was also in need of treatment, which Steve gave him at once.
None of them had any thought for supper, which, in fact, had long since been finished in the dining room of the boarding house. Rush looked over the Pole with keen eyes.
"You have been fighting before to-night. What for?" he demanded.
"Kalinski, he liar; Foley liar--all liars!"
"Yes, I know that. Is that why you were fighting Kalinski?"
"You have been fighting him to avenge Bob and myself, have you?"