Now, how shall we settle this?
Regular stand-up-and knock-down, or rough and tumble ?" If anything Hill's face was more vacantly serene, and his tones blander than ever, as he answered: "Strike--any--gait--that--suits--you,--Mister;--I guess--I--will--be -- able--to--keep--up--with--you." They closed.

Hill feinted with his left, and as Jack uncovered to guard, he caught him fairly on the lower left ribs, by a blow from his mighty right fist, that sounded--as one of the by-standers expressed it--"like striking a hollow log with a maul." The color in Jack's face paled.

He did not seem to understand how he had laid himself open to such a pass, and made the same mistake, receiving again a sounding blow in the short ribs.

This taught him nothing, either, for again he opened his guard in response to a feint, and again caught a blow on his luckless left, ribs, that drove the blood from his face and the breath from his body.

He reeled back among his supporters for an instant to breathe.