"Look here, Shepard; you are a young blackguard, and I'm going to lick
you! What do you mean by telling lies about me?"
"I have told no lies about you," I said. "You told the fellows at your
squad that I was one of the greatest bullies at the shop, so it's no use
your telling another lie to save yourself a licking?" I was taken aback
at this remark, for I now remembered what I had said at the dinner-table
about his being a bully. I could not, however, see how this remark
could be turned into a lie, for there was no doubt about the fact of
Snipson being one of the greatest bullies at the Academy; but I did not
know how to argue so as to own to having called him a bully, and yet to
show I was not guilty of falsehood.
"You see you're caught?" said Snipson; "so now just put one of those
stools on the other!" I hesitated a moment, and said,--"I remember
saying you were a bully, but I didn't think you would mind that, and I
don't call that a lie."
"Ah, now you acknowledge saying what you before denied! That's three
lies you've told since you have been here! Now, get onto the top of
that uppermost stool?"
So great had been the influence of the authority of old-cadetism on me
that I obeyed Snipson's orders, and with some difficulty climbed to the
top of the stool. In an instant Snipson kicked over the lower stool,
and I fell heavily on my side from a height of about five feet, the leg
of the stool striking me on the shin.
Before I could recover myself, and when the pain from the blow I had
received was gradually spreading, as it were, over my whole body,
Snipson, who was grinning maliciously, said,--
"Put the stools in order and up again! Look sharp!" he shouted, as I
hesitated to obey.
"I won't get up again?" I said. "I may be injured seriously."
"Then take that!" said Snipson, as he struck me with his clenched fist
on the side of the head.
In an instant all fear of old cadets, of fagging, of corporals, and of
trials by the seniors left me; and I remembered only Snipson's repeated
acts of cruelty to me when I first joined, his general sneering and
self-sufficient manner, and his sneaking conduct relative to the neux he
had so seriously injured by the very same proceeding that he was now
practising on me. These thoughts flashed, as it were, over my mind like
an electric message along a wire, and before Snipson could repeat his
blow I caught him a fair shoulder-hit at a well-judged distance, and
knocked him completely off his legs against his bed. If I had been
given time to reflect after striking this blow, I should probably have
taken any licking Snipson might have given me quietly; but I was not
given time, for he jumped up and exclaimed,--
"I'll half kill you for that!" and rushed at me, trying to close with
me.
I believed that from his greater size and weight I should soon have got
the worst of a close encounter, so I did not give him a chance of doing
so, but met him with a right and left, which were delivered with all the
force I had gained in hitting under Howard's instruction, and driven by
the additional energy derived from my long endurance of bullying.
Snipson went down again like a nine-pin, and I now knew I could thrash
him in fair fight; but I did not then know how great a coward he was,
and how malicious he could be; but I soon found out my danger. Instead
of getting up at once and again rushing at me, Snipson lay for a few
seconds where he had fallen, and looked round the room. Suddenly he
sprang up and made a dash at the fireplace, and seized the poker. He
turned towards me, and I saw from his look that my life was in danger.
"Now it's my turn?" he hissed, as he came round the table towards me,
the poker held ready to strike.
In such positions as mine then was there sometimes comes to us a bright
idea, which answers the purpose at the time, but which, when thought of
in cooler moments, seems most unlikely to have been of any use, as it
could be so easily seen through. The conditions, however, of excitement
often induce a state quite unfit for calm reasoning, and most unexpected
results are then produced which appear afterwards to be absurd.
As Snipson was coming towards me, with his poker ready to strike me, his
back was towards the door, which, as I said before, was locked, and by
which consequently no one could enter. I, however, looked over
Snipson's shoulder, and said, "Hullo, Woodville! you are just in time."
Snipson instantly turned his head to see whether any one was there, and
at the same moment I sprang on him, seized the wrist that held the
poker, and, throwing my right arm round his neck, tripped him up, when
we both fell on the floor, I being uppermost. In the struggle the poker
had fallen out of Snipson's hand, and I instantly gained possession of
it, and, jumping on my feet, stood over Snipson, who now did not attempt
to rise, but in a half-conciliatory, half-threatening tone, said, "Now
you'd better mind what you are about, for the old cadets will give you
an awful licking for this!"
"If you tell the old cadets that I hit you," I said, "I'll go straight
to the Governor, and tell him it was you who injured your neux, and
nearly killed him, and I'll report that you tried to hit me with a
poker."
Saying this, I unlocked the door and rushed out of the room, and went to
my own, which I luckily found empty. I closed the door and sat down to
consider what I had better do.
I had heard that, shortly before I joined the Academy, a neux had struck
an old cadet, and had in consequence been tried by a sort of
court-martial by the old cadets, and had been severely thrashed. Not
content with this, the body corporate of the old cadets had ordered that
no neux should speak to the culprit, and, in addition, he was daily
placed in arrest and turned out to drill.
The neux could not stand this ordeal, and ran away from the Academy to
his friends. An inquiry into the matter afterwards took place, but a
case of cruelty could not be brought home to any particular individual,
and the cadet's friends not having any interest, the affair was dropped.
I anticipated that some such treatment would be meted out to me, for,
in spite of Snipson's proceedings, I knew that the offence of striking
an old cadet was looked on as so heinous, that no extenuating
circumstances would be allowed to outweigh the crime. My threat to
report Snipson I did not intend to carry out, but made it with the hope
that it would prevent him from telling the old cadets that I had knocked
him down. After some minutes' consideration I went off to D'Arcy's room
to tell him all about the fight, and consult as to what should be done.
When I described to D'Arcy how I had knocked Snipson down, and had
escaped his attack on me with the poker, he was delighted. He told me
also that the old cadets detested Snipson, and he did not believe they
would back him up if he told them what I had done. "I'll bet any
money," said D'Arcy, "that unless Snipson goes at once now he is in a
rage, and tells some of the seniors, he won't say a word about it."
"Why not?" I inquired.
"Well, because he knows for your own sake that you won't say anything,
and he would probably be ashamed to own that a fellow so much smaller
than he is gave him a licking. I'd advise you to keep quiet, and don't
tell anybody else."
When we went into dinner I saw Snipson, who showed no signs of the
recent set-to; he took no notice of me, and I could tell that as yet he
had made no mention to the old cadets of my performance. The day also
passed, and the next, without anything occurring, and I began to think
Snipson meant to keep quiet; but on the following morning, after
breakfast, Fenton, on returning to our room, said, "So Snipson gave you
a thrashing the other day?"