--So they went out.
The Koh-i-noor entertained the very common idea, that, when one
quarrels with another, the simple thing to do is to _knock the man
down_, and there is the end of it. Now those who have watched such
encounters are aware of two things: first, that it is not so easy to
knock a man down as it is to talk about it; secondly, that, if you do
happen to knock a man down, there is a very good chance that he will be
angry, and get up and give you a thrashing.
So the Koh-i-noor thought he would begin, as soon as they got into the
yard, by knocking his man down, and with this intention swung his arm
round after the fashion of rustics and those unskilled in the noble
art, expecting the young fellow John to drop when his fist, having
completed a quarter of a circle, should come in contact with the side
of that young man's head. Unfortunately for this theory, it happens
that a blow struck out straight is as much shorter, and therefore as
much quicker than the rustic's swinging blow, as the radius is shorter
than the quarter of a circle. The mathematical and mechanical corollary
was, that the Koh-i-noor felt something hard bring up suddenly against
his right eye, which something he could have sworn was a paving-stone,
judging by his sensations; and as this threw his person somewhat
backwards, and the young man, John jerked his own head back a little,
the swinging blow had nothing to stop it; and as the Jewel staggered
between the hit he got and the blow he missed, he tripped and "went to
grass," so far as the back-yard of our boarding-house was provided with
that vegetable.
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