Ned was given no time to draw breath. Manners was upon him like a wildcat the next instant, and Ned had his hands full. Sharp was puffy and out of training. His muscles, though ponderous, were flabby, and his breath short. Already he was panting. But Manners offered a more serious problem. He was young, strongly thewed and in fairly good condition. The young gunner’s mate was prepared for him, though, and he managed to land two terrific body blows before Manners could use his fists effectively.
Not an instant did Ned lose in following up the brief temporary advantage he had before Sharp joined in the assault. He grabbed Manners in an iron grip, and as Sharp, bellowing furiously, charged down like a wild bull, his arms going like the sails of a windmill,--he was too furious to employ science in his attack,--Ned was all ready for him.
His plan had been formed in a jiffy. It was simple but hugely effective. He utilized Manners, whom he held at arm’s length by the scruff of the neck, as a human battering ram.
As Sharp rushed in, Ned, exerting the full force of his steel-true muscles, swung Manners with all the energy he possessed against the infuriated sailor. The force of the collision took the breath out of Sharp, and Ned was upon him in an instant. Seizing each of the recalcitrant stragglers by the back of the neck, he banged them together till they howled for mercy.
“Well, are you ready to come along now?” demanded Ned sharply.
“All right. We’ll go,” panted Sharp, “but I’ll get even on you, Strong, if it takes me till the last day I live.”
Manners merely nodded sullenly, but it was easy to see that the fight was out of him as completely as it had evaporated from Sharp under Ned’s necessarily vigorous treatment. Ned was the last lad in the world to needlessly seek trouble. But he had taken good care to be prepared to meet it if it came to him. This is the spirit that is properly encouraged in the navy,--not a desire to bully or seek excuses for trouble, but to have a well-trained body and mind, prepared if trouble does come to meet it, in a manly fashion and without loss of dignity or sacrifice of the principles for which our navy stands.
“I’ll get even, I say!” bellowed Sharp as Ned, ignoring the Chinaman who still lay flat eying him out of his squinty eyes, marched his two tamed termagants to the door.