“Is that what you think?” Frank mentally exclaimed.  “Well, I suppose I will have to hit him a few times, although it goes against my grain.”

A moment later he dropped his hands by his side and took a step to meet the Virginian.  It seemed like a great opportunity for Diamond, and he led off straight for Frank’s face, striking with his left.

With a slight side movement of his head Frank avoided the blow, allowing his enemy’s fist to pass over his shoulder.  At the same time he cross countered with his right hand, cracking Jack a heavy one under the ear.

“Hooray!” cried Harry Rattleton in delight.  “That was a corker!  Bet Sparkler saw more stars than there are in the Wilky May—­I mean Milky Way.”

For a few minutes the fight was hot.  Again and again Frank struck his enemy, but without putting his full strength into any of the blows, but it did not seem to have any effect on Diamond save to make him more fierce and determined.

“The Southerner’s got some sand,” commented Bruce Browning.

“That’s right,” nodded Puss Parker.

“He takes punishment well for a while, at least; but I don’t believe he will hold out much longer.  I think he is the kind of a fellow to go to pieces in an instant.”

“You can’t tell about that.  I have a fancy that he’s deceptive.”

None of them, save Rattleton, possibly, knew that Merriwell was reserving any of his strength when he struck his foe.

The fellows who a short time before were the most indignant against the Southerner because he seemed determined to “blow” were now forced to admire his bulldog tenacity and sand.

Merriwell had no desire to severely injure Diamond, although he had felt some resentment toward the fellow for forcing him into a duel with rapiers.

To Frank it had seemed that the Virginian had no hesitation in taking advantage of an enemy, for Diamond must have presumed that Merriwell knew nothing of the art of fencing and swordplay.

But for this belief, Merriwell would have been inclined to keep on and tire his enemy out, without striking a single blow that could leave a mark.

But when Frank came to consider everything, he decided that it was no more than fair that he should give his persistent foe a certain amount of punishment.

Again and again Frank cross countered and upper-cut Diamond, and gradually he came to strike harder as the Virginian forced the fighting, without showing signs of letting up.

Bruises and swellings began to appear on Diamond’s face.  On one cheek Merriwell’s knuckles cut through the skin, and the blood began to run, creeping down to his chin and dropping on the bosom of his white shirt.

Still, from the determination and fury with which he fought, it seemed that Diamond was utterly unconscious that he had been struck at all.

Jack did not consider how he had led Frank into a duel with rapiers without knowing whether the fellow he hated had ever taken a fencing lesson in all his life.