As the mucker rushed upward toward him Mallory had all
the advantage of position and preparedness, and had he done
what Billy Byrne would have done under like circumstances
he would have planted a kick in the midst of the mucker's
facial beauties with all the power and weight and energy at his
command; but Billy Mallory could no more have perpetrated
a cowardly trick such as this than he could have struck a
woman.
Instead, he waited, and as the mucker came on an even
footing with him Mallory swung a vicious right for the man's
jaw. Byrne ducked beneath the blow, came up inside Mallory's
guard, and struck him three times with trip-hammer
velocity and pile-driver effectiveness--once upon the jaw and
twice--below the belt!
The girl, clinging to the rail, riveted by the paralysis of
fright, saw her champion stagger back and half crumple to the
deck. Then she saw him make a brave and desperate rally, as,
though torn with agony, he lurched forward in an endeavor
to clinch with the brute before him. Again the mucker struck
his victim--quick choppy hooks that rocked Mallory's head
from side to side, and again the brutal blow below the belt;
but with the tenacity of a bulldog the man fought for a hold
upon his foe, and at last, notwithstanding Byrne's best efforts,
he succeeded in closing with the mucker and dragging him to
the deck.
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