lutch, gave an amazing yank,
which severed them straight up the back, from seat to nape, at the same
time exclaiming:

"Ye'll naht pay me, will ye? Ye'll naht, will ye?"

On the instant a tremendous change came over the scene. It was as swift
as stage play. Instantly Rourke was upright and faced about, shouting,
"Now, be gob, ye've torn me coat, have ye! Now I'll tache ye! Now I'll
show ye! Wait! Get ready, now. Now I'll fix ye, ye drunken, thavin'
loafer," and at the same time he began to move upon the enemy in a kind
of rhythmic, cryptic circle (some law governing anger and emotion, I
presume), the while his hands opened and shut and his eyes looked as
though they would be veiled completely by his narrowing lids. At the
same time the stranger, apparently seeing his danger, began backing and
circling in the same way around Rourke, as well as around the fire,
until it looked as though they were performing a war dance. Round and
round they went like two Hopi bucks or Zulu warriors, their faces
displaying the most murderous cunning and intention to slay--only,
instead of feathers and beads, they had on their negligible best. All
the while Rourke was calling, "Come on, now! Get ready, now! I'll show
ye, now! I'll fix ye, now! It's me coat ye'll rip, is it? Come on, now!
Get ready! Make yerself ready! I'm goin' to give ye the lickin' av yer
life! Come on, now! Come on, now! Come on, now!"

It was as though each had been secreted from the other and had to be
sought out in some mysterious manner and in a circle. In spite of the
feeling of distress that an impending struggle of this kind gives one, I
could not help noting the comic condition of Rourke's back--the long
coat beautifully ripped straight up the back, its ends fluttering in the
wind like fans, and exposing his waistcoat and Sunday boiled white
shirt--and laying up a laugh for the future. It was too ridiculous. The
stranger had a most impressive and yet absurd air of drunken sternness
written in his face, a do-or-die look.

Whether anything serious would really have happened I was never
permitted to learn, for now, in addition to myself and the Italians, all
of them excited and ready to defend their lord and master, some
passengers from the nearby station and the street above as well as a
foreman of a section gang helping at this same task, a great hulking
brute of a man who looked quite able to handle both Rourke and his
opponent at one and the same time, came