Beta Book

Pete snorted: "Who says to `shut up,' hey? Who was it, Satan?"
From the capstan, where he was still smoking, the head foreman
muttered: "What's the odds? The little man won't say it again."
Pete stood by Bill Wrenn's mattress. "Who said `shut up'?"
sounded ominously.
Bill popped out of bed with what he regarded as a vicious
fighting-crouch. For he was too sleepy to be afraid. "I did!
What you going to do about it?" More mildly, as a fear of his
own courage began to form, "I want to sleep."
"Oh! You want to sleep. Little mollycoddle wants to sleep,
does he? Come here!"
The tough grabbed at Bill's shirt-collar across the mattress.
Bill ducked, stuck out his arm wildly, and struck Pete, half by
accident. Roaring, Pete bunted him, and he went down, with Pete
kneeling on his stomach and pounding him.
Morton and honest McGarver, the straw-boss, sprang to drag off
Pete, while Satan, the panther, with the first interest they had
ever seen in his eyes, snarled: "Let 'em fight fair. Rounds.


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