Hales, My life of adventure (1918)

(pp385) On the night appointed, I hid behind a tree at the arranged spot, ready to spring to the rescue and help the old lion ; my loafers lurked in the shade of a wall. He came in the starlight — a grand figure of an old warlock, just merry enough to feel the blood bounding in his veins. The fellows made a rush. He braced his broad back to the wall and felling one fool with a blow, he seized the other round the waist and, with an ancient Devon wrestling trick, dashed him down upon his fallen mate, and his voice rang out in a roar of battle.

I sprang to the rescue — for this was my golden opportunity. As I came, he mistook me for another foe, and with a trick of his foot he swept my legs from under me, and as I fell against the wall he took me in the stomach with his fist —