"I want to see him do it."

"I didn't come here to punch the bag," said d.i.c.k as calmly as ever. "I just thought I'd take a look around."

"Humph! Afraid to try, eh?"

"Oh, no."

"I dare you to show what you can do," sneered Lew Flapp.

"Very well, I'll show you," came from d.i.c.k, and he began to take off his coat, collar, and tie.

CHAPTER VIII

A SCENE IN THE GYMNASIUM

Lew Flapp spoke in such a loud, overbearing voice that a crowd began to collect in the corner where the punching apparatus was located.

"What's up?" asked more than one cadet.

"Lew Flapp and d.i.c.k Rover are going to try to beat each other at punching the bag," was the report.

"Rover will have to do his best then. Flapp is a prime one at bag punching. It's about the only thing he can do real well."

"This isn't a fair contest," put in another student. "Flapp took lessons from a man who used to do bag-punching on the vaudeville stage."

"If that's so I wouldn't try to beat him, if I was d.i.c.k Rover."

d.i.c.k heard some of this talk but said nothing. He was soon ready for the trial, and stepping up to the punching bag he began to undo the top strap.

"That bag is all right," bl.u.s.tered Lew Flapp.

"Yes--for you," answered d.i.c.k. "But you must remember, I am not quite so tall. I must have it an inch lower."

"It seems to me you are mighty particular."

"I have a right to be. When you do your punching you can raise the bag as high as you please."

"That's the talk," came from several standing near.

By this time Larry was on the floor again, and he came up to learn what d.i.c.k was doing.

"d.i.c.k, they tell me he is the best bag-puncher here," whispered Larry.

"I can't help it."

"He will crow over you if you don't do as well as he can do."

"Let him."

d.i.c.k began his punching exercise slowly, for he had not tried it for some time, and was afraid he was a little stiff. But, it may be added here, there was a punching bag in the barn at the Rovers' farm, so the youth knew exactly what he was doing.

"Oh, anybody can do that," remarked Lew Flapp presently. "That's as simple as A. B. C."

"Well, can you do this?" returned d.i.c.k, and branched off into something a trifle more difficult.

"To be sure I can."

"Then what about this?" and now d.i.c.k settled down to some real work.

Clap! clap! went the bag, this way and that.

"Yes, I can do that, too," answered the tall boy.

"I'd like to see you."

Lew Flapp was only too anxious to show his skill, and having adjusted the bag to suit him, he went at the work once again, doing just what d.i.c.k had done.

"Now do this!" he cried, and gave a performance of his most difficult exercise. It was certainly well executed and at the conclusion many of the cadets began to applaud.

"d.i.c.k Rover will have to hump himself to do that," remarked one.

"I don't believe he can touch it," said another.

With care d.i.c.k fixed the bag and went at the exercise. It was something he had not practiced for a considerable time, yet he did not miss a stroke, and he wound up with a speed fully equal to that exhibited by his opponent.

"Good for you, d.i.c.k!" cried Larry heartily.

"They'll have to call it a tie," suggested another cadet.

"I'm not done yet," said d.i.c.k. "Can you do this?" he asked of Lew Flapp, and then commenced an exercise he had learned some time before, from a boxing instructor. It was full of intricate movements, all executed so rapidly that the eye could scarcely follow them. The cadets looked on in wonder, Lew Flapp staring angrily at the performance.

"Wonderful!"

"I didn't know d.i.c.k Rover could do such punching!"

"Say, Flapp, you'll have to get up early in the morning to beat that."

"Oh, you shut your mouth!" retorted Lew Flapp angrily. "I can do ten times better, if I want to."

"Let us see you."

"I--I--I'm in no condition to go ahead just now. Remember, I was punching the bag for an hour before Rover got here."

"How can that be, when all of us just came from the mess hall?"

questioned Larry.