"But remember, Fred, it's allowable, when a fellow's crippled, to fight by substitute." "Substitute ?" asked Fred, looking uncomfortable.
"Yes; I'll take his place, if Prescott will let me," volunteered Frank Thompson, coolly.
"You?
I guess not," snorted Ripley.

"I won't stand for that.
I'm a third classman, and you're a first classman.

You're half as big again as I am, and-----" "The odds wouldn't be as bad as you're proposing to take out of this poor little freshman with the crippled hand," insisted Thompson.
"So get ready to meet me.

I'll allow one of my hands to be tied, if you want." Yet even this proposition couldn't be made alluring to Fred Ripley.
He knew Thompson's mettle and strength too well for that.
Dan Dalzell, another freshman, had been standing back, keeping quiet as long as he could.
"See here," proposed Dan, stepping forward, "isn't a freshman allowed to say something when his friend is insulted ?" "Go ahead," nodded Thompson, who knew Dan to be one of young Prescott's close friends.
"Dick isn't in shape to fight, and I know it," continued Dan Dalzell, hotly.

"But Ripley wants something easy, like a freshman, so he can have me!" "And me," cried Tom Reade, also leaping forward.
"He can have one with me, too," offered Harry Hazelton.
"Same here," added Greg Holmes and Dave Darrin.
All five of the speakers were freshmen, and close chums of Dick Prescott's.
"Say, what do you think I want---to fight a whole pack ?" demanded Ripley, hoarsely.
"Oh, you don't have to fight us all at once," retorted Dave Darrin.
"But you've insulted our friend, and you've taken a sneaking advantage of him at a time when you _knew_ he couldn't handle anyone as big as you are.