He balled his hands into fists to protect himself from Conlon's certain attack. Spot rammed him in the stomach with his shoulder causing him to fall down. Before Holden could move into a more secure position a hand came out of nowhere and punched him squarely in the mouth. Another blow to the stomach made him double over in pain. Spot Conlon was a lot stronger than he looked. It was at that moment that Mush decided to join in the fight. He hadn't intended on fighting just splitting them up, but Spot hauled off and punched Mush. Then of course he had to retaliate. The room erupted into a bar room brawl. In that time Holden was on his feet again trying to stop all the fighting. He thought it was a bit unfair all those boys against Spot. The boy was holding his own though, surrounded by at least ten people. He had to end this and was thinking of how to do it safely when a fist connected with his eye. He spluttered wildly looking at his assailant, a small boy about eleven years old. " Snip?" he questioned," What'd you do that for?" Snip had only been a newsie for two weeks. The younger boy's cheeks turned bright red and he stuttered," S...Sorry." Snip scampered away in fear as though Holden was going to kill him or something. Obviously he had gotten caught up in the fighting and had not realized what he was doing. He rubbed his eye and decided that enough was enough. He screamed at the top of his lungs, " EVERYBODY STOP!" The whole bunch stopped what they were doing and stared at him. He said quietly," This is crazy! I need to have a talk with Conlon outside. The rest of you guys cut it out and go to bed or something!" He walked out of the room and sat down on the first step of the stairs.
Seconds later Spot joined him on the steps. Holden looked at him and said irritably," Now will you listen to me?" He nodded slowly and waited for Holden's explanation. He told him that the whole thing was an accident. He would never hurt her or any girl on purpose. He didn't even know that he had a sister. To that Spot responded, " It's somethin' that I try to keep secret. Can't have everybody knowin' the Leader of the Brooklyn newsies has a kid sister." Holden was still angry that his sleep had been interrupted and said to Spot," If you were any kind of an older brother you'd make sure your sister had a proper coat to keep her warm in this winter weather." Conlon did nothing but give him such a glare that told him he was pushing his luck. They declared a delicate truce, but Spot didn't apologize for his actions. Holden invited him to stay at the lodging house, because it was much too cold for him walk back to Brooklyn. Both tired beyond words Holden opened the door to the bedroom, and as he did so several newsies fell to the floor. Mush, Race, and Kid Blink looked up at them embarrassed, and Spot muttered, " The Manhattan newsies sure are a nosy bunch." Holden walked to his bed and realized for the first time that his lip was bleeding. Well, at least he and Sunday were even now. Spot found himself an empty bed and slid into it. The other newsies looked at them shocked while they both drifted off to sleep.