Then, with a deft swing he sent him crashing
into a clump of tall nettles, which closed receptively round him.
The victim had not been brought up in a school which teaches one
to repress one's emotions--if a fox had attempted to gnaw at his
vitals he would have flown to complain to the nearest hunt
committee rather than have affected an attitude of stoical
indifference. On this occasion the volume of sound which he
produced under the stimulus of pain and rage and astonishment was
generous and sustained, but above his bellowings he could
distinctly hear the triumphant chattering of his enemy in the
tree, and a peal of shrill laughter from Groby.
When the boy had finished an improvised St. Vitus caracole, which
would have brought him fame on the boards of the Coliseum, and
which indeed met with ready appreciation and applause from the
retreating figure of Groby Lington, he found that the monkey had
also discreetly retired, while his clothes were scattered on the
grass at the foot of the tree.
"They'm two ipes, that's what they be," he muttered angrily, and
if his judgment was severe, at least he spoke under the sting of
considerable provocation.
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