Ware looked foolish at being foiled so neatly, and broke away, only to come at Jumbo again, and clasp him so close that there was no room for his fists to press against Ware’s diaphragm.  But now Jumbo suddenly clasped his left arm back of Ware’s neck, and with his right hand bent the man’s forehead back until he was glad enough to let go and spring away.  Ware continued to run around Jumbo as a dog runs around a treed cat.  But Jumbo always evaded his quick rushes till Ware, after many false moves, finally made a sudden and unforeseen dash, seized Jumbo’s right hand with both of his, whirled in close, and, with his back against Jumbo’s chest, carried the Lakerimmer’s right arm straight and stiff across his shoulder.  Bearing down with all his weight on this lever, and at the same time dropping to his knees, he shot Jumbo over his shoulders, heels over head.

“That Flying Mere was certainly a bird!” said Bobbles.

Ware went down with Jumbo, to land on his chest and break any bridge the boy might form.  And the Flying Mere had been such a surprise, and the fall was so far and the floor so hard, that, while Jumbo instinctively tried to bridge, his effort collapsed.  His two shoulders touched.  The bout was over.

The first fall had been so quickly accomplished, and Jumbo had offered so feeble a resistance, that the Troy faction at once accepted the wrestling-match as theirs, and the Kingstonians gave up the evening as hopelessly lost.

Jumbo was especially covered with chagrin, since he had practised so long, and had builded so many hopes on this victory; worst of all, the whole success of the contest between the two academies depended on his victory.

When, then, after a rest, the referee called “Time!” Ware came stalking up jauntily and confidently; but Jumbo, instead of skulking, was up, and at, and on him like a wildcat.  Ware had expected that the Lakerim youngster would pursue the same elusive tactics as before, and he was all amaze while Jumbo was seizing his left hand with his own left hand, and, darting round behind him, was bending Ware’s arm backward and upward into the Hammerlock.

The pain of this twist sent Ware’s body forward, so that Jumbo could reach up under his right armpit and, placing the palm of his right hand on the back of Ware’s head, make use of that crowbar known as the right Half-Nelson.  This pressure was gradually forcing Ware forward on the top of his head; but he knew the proper break for the Hammerlock, and simply threw himself face forward on the mat.

As he rose to his knees again Jumbo pounced on him like a hawk, and while Ware waited patiently the little Lakerimmer was reaching under Ware’s armpit again for another Half-Nelson; but Ware simply dodged the grasping of Jumbo’s right hand, or, bringing his right arm vigorously back and down, so checked Jumbo’s arm that the boy could not reach his neck.  Jumbo now tried, by leaning his left forearm and all his weight upon Ware’s head, to bring it into reach; but Ware’s neck was too strong, and when he stiffened it Jumbo could not force it down.