the three who were acting as “sticklers,” and in what seemed to Ishmael the flashing of a moment he and Doughty were crouching, cat-like, opposite each other, legs bent, arms out, hands tense.  They stood so for what seemed minutes, though it was only a fraction of the time that had gone in the preparations.  Ishmael felt no fear of Doughty; exhilaration was still strong enough within him to eliminate that dread, though the fear of losing that always pricks at the fighter was not quite deadened.  He circled, still in that cat-like attitude, Doughty circling also, both waiting to spring.  Ishmael was intensely aware of superficial physical sensations—­the tense feeling in his skin, and under the soles of his feet the hardness of the ground.  He spread his feet a little and moved his toes against the grass.  All his muscles were on the alert, and suddenly, from acute consciousness of every fibre of his body, he passed to a splendid lightness, a complete ignoring of anything but poise and spring.  In that moment, so swiftly on the edge of the first circling movement that Doughty, the slower of communication from brain to limbs, thought it the same, he had rushed for his hitch.

He got him by the sleeve, and Doughty, surprised at the quick hold, shyed away, but could not twist out of it.  He grappled Ishmael more closely to try and get full shoulder-play, but the only result was that each obtained a hitch on the arm and breast of the other’s shirt.  The “flying mare” was now out of the question for Ishmael this round, but with a dexterous twist of his leg he got an inside lock on his opponent’s, and the next moment Doughty was sprawling.  He was up the second after, and, since his shoulders had not touched the ground, the fall counted for nothing, and this time he rushed in at Ishmael.  He was very angry.

He stooped more, so as to keep his legs out of Ishmael’s reach, and the two strained to try and over-balance each other’s body, using the ordinary arm and breast hold.  Ishmael, after a few moments of this immobile straining, let go Doughty’s arm to seize him by the back of the collar, and Doughty, profiting in a flash by the steeper angle of inclination, caught him square under the arms and raised him bodily in the air.

Ishmael hung on grimly, making no effort to disengage himself, which would only have given Doughty the further purchase needed to throw him.  Instead he began to work round in the other’s arms.  As soon as he had sufficient twist on his hips he entwined his feet round Doughty’s knees, and with an effort that caused the blood to suffuse his face and neck—­for Doughty was fighting the movement with relentless pressure—­he got himself, by the hold his legs gave him, round so that his shoulders instead of his chest were against the chest of his upholder.  He flung his arms backwards round Doughty’s fore-arms, thus keeping himself pressed upon the other, his stomach arched outwards, his legs curled back each side round the other’s knees, his arms, also backwards, pressing the other’s torso in a curve that followed and supported his own with the disadvantage of having his full weight upon it.