The man rose slowly, and rising did not improve his appearance. He was
rather tall, shaggy, loose-jointed, long-armed, broad-shouldered, and he
squinted awfully. His nose was broken, and his dark colour bespoke him
a gypsy.
"Can you help me up to yonder house with these things, my man?"
"No," said the man, gruffly, "I'm footsore with travellin', but I'll
watch them here while you go up for help."
"Oh! ahem!" said Mr Sudberry, with peculiar emphasis; "you seem a stout
fellow, and might find more difficult ways of earning half a crown.
However, I'll give you that sum if you go up and tell them to send down
a barrow."
"I'll wait here," replied the man, with a sarcastic grin, limping back
to his former seat on the bank.
"Oh! very well, and I will wait _here_," said Mr Sudberry, seating
himself on a large stone, and pulling out his letters.
Seeing this, the gypsy got up again, and looked cautiously along the
road, first to the right and then to the left. No human being was in
sight. Mr Sudberry observed the act, and felt uncomfortable.
"You'd better go for help, sir," said the man, coming forward.
"Thank you, I'd rather wait for it."
"This seems a handy sort of thing to carry," said the gypsy, taking up
the sack that looked like groceries, and throwing it across his
shoulder. "I'll save you the trouble of taking this one up, anyhow."
He went off at once at a sharp walk, and with no symptom either of
lameness or exhaustion. Mr Sudberry was after him in a moment. The
man turned round and faced him.
"Put that where you took it from!" thundered Mr Sudberry.
"Oh! you're going to resist."
The gypsy uttered an oath, and ran at Mr Sudberry, intending to
overwhelm him with one blow, and rob him on the spot. The big blockhead
little knew his man. He did not know that the little Englishman was a
man of iron frame; he only regarded him as a fiery little gentleman.
Still less did he know that Mr Sudberry had in his youth been an expert
boxer, and that he had even had the honour of being knocked flat on his
back more than once by _professional_ gentlemen--in an amicable way, of
course--at four and sixpence a lesson. He knew nothing of all this, so
he rushed blindly on his fate, and met it--that is to say, he met Mr
Sudberry's left fist with the bridge of his nose, and his right with the
pit of his stomach; the surprising result of which was that the gypsy
staggered back against the wall.
But the man was not a coward, whatever other bad qualities he might have
been possessed of. Recovering in a moment, he rushed upon his little
antagonist, and sent in two sledge-hammer blows with such violence that
nothing but the Englishman's activity could have saved him from instant
defeat. He ducked to the first, parried the second, and returned with
such prompt good-will on the gypsy's right eye, that he was again sent
staggering back against the wall; from which point of observation he
stared straight before him, and beheld Mr Sudberry in the wildness of
his excitement, performing a species of Cherokee war-dance in the middle
of the road. Nothing daunted, however, the man was about to renew his
assault, when George and Fred, all ignorant of what was going on, came
round a turn of the road, on their way to see what was detaining their
father with the letters.
"Why, that's father!" cried Fred.
"Fighting!" yelled George.
They were off at full speed in a moment. The gypsy gave but one glance,
vaulted the wall, and dived into the underwood that lined the banks of
the river. He followed the stream a few hundred yards, doubled at right
angles on his course, and in ten minutes more was seen crossing over a
shoulder of the hill, like a mountain hare.