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we
have to hunt our meat."
"The Dunns have been around. They've been talking against you."
"Talk never scratched any hides," I said. "They've got to do more than talk."
"That's what we came to town for," Curly's voice said from behind me. "I'm
going
to whip you right down to your socks."
"You'd have trouble," I said, "because I ain't wearing any."
And then he hit me.
He caught me as I was turning but he'd not been set proper and the punch
never
staggered me. I just unbuckled my gun and handed it to Berglund, who had just
come in.
I think Curly was kind of surprised that I was so ready, and that I didn't
get
flustered and mad. So he was a mite slow with that second punch and I saw it
a-coming. Now I never did want to tear up any man's store, so when that punch
came at me I just ducked under it and taken him in the belly with my
shoulder,
wrapping one arm around his legs and rushing him right out the door.
At the edge of the porch I dropped him and he staggered so I hit him.
Now we Sackett boys grew up a-sweating with an axe, shovel, and plow. We'd
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worked hard all our lives and my fists were big and hard and backed by an
uncommon lot of muscle, so when I fetched him a clout he went back into the
middle of the street and fell down.
Stepping off the walk I walked toward him and he got up. He was big, maybe
twenty pounds heavier than me, and he was in a whole lot better shape because
he'd not been through what I had, but also he was a drinker, and drinking
whiskey isn't what you'd call proper for a fighting man.
He came at me, a little wiser now, because that clout he'd caught had carried
some power. But he wasn't worried. He'd won a lot of fights and saw no reason
why he shouldn't win this one.
Me and Galloway had grown up fighting in the mountains and then we'd knocked
around on riverboats and freight outfits and most of what we knew we'd
learned
by applying it that way.
He came in and he taken a swing at me which I pulled aside from, and when I
pulled over I smashed my fist into his belly. It taken him good right where
he
lived. I saw his face go kind of white and sick and then I hit him again.
He went down hard into the dust, and the next thing I know there's a crowd
around yelling at him to get up. Without them I don't think he would have
done
it. Meg was there, too, her face all kind of white and funny, staring at him
like she had never seen him before, but she didn't look scared, nor did she
look
altogether displeased.
What I didn't know until later was that both Ollie Hammer and Tin-Cup were in
that crowd, just a-watching.
Curly had his friends behind him and he'd made a lot of brags no doubt, so he
had it to do. His first punch missed but the second caught me a rap alongside
of
the face and I staggered. He came on in, swinging with both hands and hit me
again. We clinched and I threw him with a rolling hip-lock, and stepped back.
I was just learning how much that time in the woods had taken out of me, for
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I'd
no staying power at all. He came at me, swinging. Again I made him miss one
but
caught the other one on the chin, and it hurt. So I bowed my neck and went to
punching with both hands. I missed a few but some of them landed, and when
they
landed he gave ground.
We fought up and down in the dust for maybe three or four minutes, and then
he
remembered about my feet, and he stomped on my toes with his boot heel.
It hurt. It hurt me so bad I thought I'd go down, but I stayed up and seeing
it
had hurt, he came at me again. This time when he tried to stomp I hooked my
toe
under his ankle and kicked it up and around and he fell into the dust. When
he
did that I ran in and grabbed him by the collar and the belt, whirled him
around
and let go, and he hit the water trough all spraddled out.
He got up though, his face bloody and him shaken. Me, I was all in. I had to
get
him now or never, so I walked in and swang on him. I threw it from the hips
and
it caught him in the mouth and pulverized his lips. My next one split his ear
and then I threw one to his belly. He pawed at me, but I had it to do now or
never, and I brushed it aside and hit him with an uppercut in the belly.
His knees buckled and I went in on him, got my forearm under his chin and
forced
his head back, and then I swung on his belly.
Somebody grabbed me from behind and then Berglund yelled, "Lay off, Hammer!
Back
up now, or I'll drop you!"
He was up there on the porch with my old Dance & Park in his fist and they
taken
him serious.
Well, I stepped back and let Curly fall into the dust, and he just lay there,
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