"
Annie looked doubtful for a minute, and then exclaimed:
"Ah, yes, I understand now. That is how it is you came to our help so
quickly and bravely, when the tiger burst in."
"I daresay it had something to do with it," Dick said, with a smile.
"There is no doubt that boxing, as we call it, does make you quick.
There is not much time to waste in thinking how you are to stop a
blow, and to return it at the same moment. One gets into the habit of
deciding at once what is the best thing to be done; and I have no
doubt that I should not have seen, at once, that one must cut through
the netting, run to the window, jump on to Surajah's shoulders, and
fire at the tiger, unless I had been sharpened up by boxing. I only
say I suppose that, because there were, no doubt, hundreds of men
looking on who had pluck enough to face the tiger, and who would have
gladly done the thing that we did, if the idea had occurred to them.
The idea did not occur to them, you see, and I have no doubt that it
was just owing to that boxing that I thought of it. So you see, Annie,
it was, in a way, the fights I had with boys at Shadwell--which is the
part of London where I lived--that saved you, and perhaps half a dozen
ladies of the sultan's harem, from being killed by that tiger.
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