The boys danced around them.

It was too good to be true.

Quinlan had thrashed them all, and here was the apparently weakest of them--white-faced O'Connell--thrashing him.

Why, if O'Connell could best him, they all could.

The reign of tyranny was over.
"Fight! Fight!" they shouted, as they crowded around the combatants.
Quinlan rose to his feet only to be put back again on the ground by a straight right in the mouth.