Kenelm was still walking on, Jessie by his side, when Bowles rudely thrust himself between them, and seizing the girls arm with one hand, he turned his face full on Kenelm, with a menacing wave of the other hand, and said in a deep burly voice,
Who be you?
Let go that young woman before I tell you.
If you werent a stranger, answered Bowles, seeming as if he tried to suppress a rising fit of wrath, youd be in the kennel for those words. But I spose you dont know that Im Tom Bowles, and I dont choose the girl as Im after to keep company with any other man. So you be off.
And I dont choose any other man to lay violent hands on any girl walking by my side without telling him that hes a brute; and that I only wait till he has both his hands at liberty to let him know that he has not a poor cripple to deal with.
Tom Bowles could scarcely believe his ears. Amaze swallowed up for the moment every other sentiment. Mechanically he loosened his hold of Jessie, who fled off like a bird released. But evidently she thought of her new friends danger more than her own escape; for instead of sheltering herself in her fathers cottage, she ran towards a group of labourers who, near at hand, had stopped loitering before the public-house, and returned with those allies towards the spot in which she had left the two men. She was very popular with the villagers, who, strong in the sense of numbers, overcame their awe of Tom Bowles, and arrived at the place half running, half striding, in time, they hoped, to interpose between his terrible arm and the bones of the unoffending stranger.
Meanwhile Bowles, having recovered his first astonishment, and scarcely noticing Jessies escape, still left his right arm extended towards the place she had vacated, and with a quick back-stroke of the left levelled at Kenelms face, growled contemptuously, Thoult find one hand enough for thee.
But quick as was his aim, Kenelm caught the lifted arm just above the elbow, causing the blow to waste itself on air, and with a simultaneous advance of his right knee and foot dexterously tripped up his bulky antagonist, and laid him sprawling on his back. The movement was so sudden, and the stun it occasioned so utter, morally as well as physically, that a minute or more elapsed before Tom Bowles picked himself up. And he then stood another minute glowering at his antagonist, with a vague sentiment of awe almost like a superstitious panic. For it is noticeable that, however fierce and fearless a man or even a wild beast may be, yet if either has hitherto been only familiar with victory and triumph, never yet having met with a foe that could cope with its force, the first effect of a defeat, especially from a despised adversary, unhinges and half paralyzes the whole nervous system. But as fighting Tom gradually recovered to the consciousness of his own strength, and the recollection that it had been only foiled by the skilful trick of a wrestler, and not the hand-to-hand might of a pugilist, the panic vanished, and Tom Bowles was himself again. Oh, thats your sort, is it? We dont fight with our heels hereabouts, like Cornishers and donkeys: we fight with our fists, youngster; and since you will have a bout at that, why, you must.
Providence, answered Kenelm, solemnly, sent me to this village for the express purpose of licking Tom Bowles. It is a signal mercy vouchsafed to yourself, as you will one day acknowledge.
Again a thrill of awe, something like that which the demagogue in Aristophanes might have felt when braved by the sausage-maker, shot through the valiant heart of Tom Bowles. He did not like those ominous words, and still less the lugubrious tone of voice in which they were uttered, But resolved, at least, to proceed to battle with more preparation than he had at first designed, he now deliberately disencumbered himself of his heavy fustian jacket and vest, rolled up his shirt-sleeves, and then slowly advanced towards the foe.
Kenelm had also, with still greater deliberation, taken off his coatwhich he folded up with care, as being both a new and an only one, and deposited by the hedge-sideand bared arms, lean indeed and almost slight, as compared with the vast muscle of his adversary, but firm in sinew as the hind leg of a stag.
By this time the labourers, led by Jessie, had arrived at the spot, and were about to crowd in between the combatants, when Kenelm waved them back and said in a calm and impressive voice,
Stand round, my good friends, make a ring, and see that it is fair play on my side. I am sure it will be fair on Mr. Bowless. He is big enough to scorn what is little. And now, Mr. Bowles, just a word with you in the presence of your neighbours. I am not going to say anything uncivil. If you are rather rough and hasty, a man is not always master of himselfat least so I am toldwhen he thinks more than he ought to do about a pretty girl. But I cant look at your face even by this moonlight, and though its expression at this moment is rather cross, without being sure that you are a fine fellow at bottom, and that if you give a promise as man to man you will keep it. Is that so?
One or two of the bystanders murmured assent; the others pressed round in silent wonder.
Whats all that soft-sawder about? said Tom Bowles, somewhat falteringly.
Simply this: if in the fight between us I beat you, I ask you to promise before your neighbours that you will not by word or deed molest or interfere again with Miss Jessie Wiles.
Eh! roared Tom. Is it that you are after her?
Suppose I am, if that pleases you; and on my side, I promise that if you beat me, I quit this place as soon as you leave me well enough to do so, and will never visit it again. What! do you hesitate to promise? Are you really afraid I shall lick you?
You! Id smash a dozen of you to powder.
In that case, you are safe to promise. Come, tis a fair bargain. Is nt it, neighbours?
Won over by Kenelms easy show of good temper, and by the sense of justice, the bystanders joined in a common exclamation of assent.
Come, Tom, said an old fellow, the gentleman cant speak fairer; and we shall all think you be afeard if you hold back.
Toms face worked: but at last he growled, Well, I promise; that is, if he beats me.
All right, said Kenelm. You hear, neighbours; and Tom Bowles could not show that handsome face of his among you if he broke his word. Shake hands on it.
Fighting Tom sulkily shook hands.
Well now, thats what I call English, said Kenelm, all pluck and no malice. Fall back, friends, and leave a clear space for us.
The men all receded; and as Kenelm took his ground, there was a supple ease in his posture which at once brought out into clearer evidence the nervous strength of his build, and, contrasted with Toms bulk of chest, made the latter look clumsy and topheavy.
The two men faced each other a minute, the eyes of both vigilant and steadfast. Toms blood began to fire up as he gazed; nor, with all his outward calm; was Kenelm insensible of that proud beat of the heart which is aroused by the fierce joy of combat. Tom struck out first and a blow was parried, but not returned; another and another blow,still parried, still unreturned. Kenelm, acting evidently on the defensive, took all the advantages for that strategy which he derived from superior length of arm and lighter agility of frame. Perhaps he wished to ascertain the extent of his adversarys skill, or to try the endurance of his wind, before he ventured on the hazards of attack. Tom, galled to the quick that blows which might have felled an ox were thus warded off from their mark, and dimly aware that he was encountering some mysterious skill which turned his brute strength into waste force and might overmaster him in the long run, came to a rapid conclusion that the sooner he brought that brute strength to bear the better it would be for him. Accordingly, after three rounds, in which without once breaking the guard of his antagonist he had received a few playful taps on the nose and mouth, he drew back and made a bull-like rush at his foe,bull-like, for it butted full at him with the powerful down-bent head, and the two fists doing duty as horns. The rush spent, he found himself in the position of a man milled. I take it for granted that every Englishman who can call himself a manthat is, every man who has been an English boy, and, as such, been compelled to the use of his fistsknows what a mill is. But I sing not only pueris, but virginibus. Ladies, a mill,using with reluctance and contempt for myself that slang in which ladywriters indulge, and Girls of the Period know much better than they do their Murray,a mill,speaking not to ladywriters, not to Girls of the Period, but to innocent damsels, and in explanation to those foreigners who only understand the English language as taught by Addison and Macaulay,a mill periphrastically means this: your adversary, in the noble encounter between fist and fist, has so plunged his head that it gets caught, as in a vice, between the side and doubled left arm of the adversary, exposing that head, unprotected and helpless, to be pounded out of recognizable shape by the right fist of the opponent. It is a situation in which raw superiority of force sometimes finds itself, and is seldom spared by disciplined superiority of skill. Kenelm, his right fist raised, paused for a moment, then, loosening the left arm, releasing the prisoner, and giving him a friendly slap on the shoulder, he turned round to the spectators and said apologetically, He has a handsome face: it would be a shame to spoil it.
Toms position of peril was so obvious to all, and that good-humoured abnegation of the advantage which the position gave to the adversary seemed so generous, that the labourers actually hurrahed. Tom, himself felt as if treated like a child; and alas, and alas for him! in wheeling round, and regathering himself up, his eye rested on Jessies face. Her lips were apart with breathless terror: he fancied they were apart with a smile of contempt. And now he became formidable. He fought as fights the bull in the presence of the heifer, who, as he knows too well, will go with the conqueror.