Then there was a snake-like bend on his part, and before I had time to think I was on my face.

His knees were astride my body, and gradually I felt them pushing my arms up toward my neck.

I felt a slight blow on the back of my head, as though by the edge of the hand--light, delicate, gentle, but dreamy in its results.

Then I was half conscious of a hand pushing down my head, of another hand reaching for my right wrist.

It occurred to me in a distant way that I was about to be beaten, subdued--I, John Cowles! This had been done, as he had said of my own work with Singleton, as much by the momentum of my own fall as by any great effort on his part.
As he had said regarding my own simple trick, the time of this was perfect, though how far more difficult than mine, only those who have wrestled with able men can understand.
For the first time in my life I found myself about to be mastered by another man.