From the panting, pounding, yelling heap issued words and phrases. .h.i.therto quite unknown to Penrod and Sam; also, a hoa.r.s.e repet.i.tion in the voice of Rupe concerning his ear left it not to be doubted that additional mayhem was taking place. Appalled, the two spectators retreated to the doorway nearest the yard, where they stood dumbly watching the cataclysm.
The struggle increased in primitive simplicity: time and again the howling Rupe got to his knees only to go down again as the earnest brothers, in their own way, a.s.sisted him to a more reclining position.
Primal forces operated here, and the two blanched, slightly higher products of evolution, Sam and Penrod, no more thought of interfering than they would have thought of interfering with an earthquake.
At last, out of the ruck rose Verman, disfigured and maniacal. With a wild eye he looked about him for his trusty rake; but Penrod, in horror, had long since thrown the rake out into the yard. Naturally, it had not seemed necessary to remove the lawn-mower.
The frantic eye of Verman fell upon the lawn-mower, and instantly he leaped to its handle. Shrilling a wordless war-cry, he charged, propelling the whirling, deafening knives straight upon the p.r.o.ne legs of Rupe Collins. The lawn-mower was sincerely intended to pa.s.s longitudinally over the body of Mr. Collins from heel to head; and it was the time for a death-song. Black Valkyrie hovered in the shrieking air.
"Cut his gizzud out!" shrieked Herman, urging on the whirling knives.
They touched and lacerated the shin of Rupe, as, with the supreme agony of effort a creature in mortal peril puts forth before succ.u.mbing, he tore himself free of Herman and got upon his feet.
Herman was up as quickly. He leaped to the wall and seized the garden-scythe that hung there.
"I"m go to cut you" gizzud out," he announced definitely, "an" eat it!"
Rupe Collins had never run from anybody (except his father) in his life; he was not a coward; but the present situation was very, very unusual.
He was already in a badly dismantled condition, and yet Herman and Verman seemed discontented with their work: Verman was swinging the gra.s.s-cutter about for a new charge, apparently still wishing to mow him, and Herman had made a quite plausible statement about what he intended to do with the scythe.
Rupe paused but for an extremely condensed survey of the horrible advance of the brothers, and then, uttering a blood-curdled scream of fear, ran out of the stable and up the alley at a speed he had never before attained, so that even Dan had hard work to keep within barking distance. And a "cross-shoulder glance, at the corner, revealing Verman and Herman in pursuit, the latter waving his scythe overhead, Mr.
Collins slackened not his gait, but, rather, out of great anguish, increased it; the while a rapidly developing purpose became firm in his mind--and ever after so remained--not only to refrain from visiting that neighbourhood again, but never by any chance to come within a mile of it.
From the alley door, Penrod and Sam watched the flight, and were without words. When the pursuit rounded the corner, the two looked wanly at each other, but neither spoke until the return of the brothers from the chase.
Herman and Verman came back, laughing and chuckling.
"Hiyi!" cackled Herman to Verman, as they came, "See "at ole boy run!"
"Who-ee!" Verman shouted in ecstasy.
"Nev" did see boy run so fas"!" Herman continued, tossing the scythe into the wheelbarrow. "I bet he home in bed by viss time!"
Verman roared with delight, appearing to be wholly unconscious that the lids of his right eye were swollen shut and that his attire, not too finical before the struggle, now ent.i.tled him to unquestioned rank as a sansculotte. Herman was a similar ruin, and gave as little heed to his condition.
Penrod looked dazedly from Herman to Verman and back again. So did Sam Williams.
"Herman," said Penrod, in a weak voice, "you wouldn"t HONEST of cut his gizzard out, would you?"
"Who? Me? I don" know. He mighty mean ole boy!" Herman shook his head gravely, and then, observing that Verman was again convulsed with unctuous merriment, joined laughter with his brother. "Sho"! I guess I uz dess TALKIN" whens I said "at! Reckon he thought I meant it, f"m de way he tuck an" run. Hiyi! Reckon he thought ole Herman bad man! No, suh! I uz dess talkin", "cause I nev" would cut n.o.body! I ain" tryin"
git in no jail--NO, suh!"
Penrod looked at the scythe: he looked at Herman. He looked at the lawn-mower, and he looked at Verman. Then he looked out in the yard at the rake. So did Sam Williams.
"Come on, Verman," said Herman. "We ain" go" "at stove-wood f" supper yit."
Giggling reminiscently, the brothers disappeared leaving silence behind them in the carriage-house. Penrod and Sam retired slowly into the shadowy interior, each glancing, now and then, with a preoccupied air, at the open, empty doorway where the late afternoon sunshine was growing ruddy. At intervals one or the other sc.r.a.ped the floor reflectively with the side of his shoe. Finally, still without either having made any effort at conversation, they went out into the yard and stood, continuing their silence.
"Well," said Sam, at last, "I guess it"s time I better be gettin" home.
So long, Penrod!"
"So long, Sam," said Penrod, feebly.
With a solemn gaze he watched his friend out of sight. Then he went slowly into the house, and after an interval occupied in a unique manner, appeared in the library, holding a pair of brilliantly gleaming shoes in his hand.
Mr. Schofield, reading the evening paper, glanced frowningly over it at his offspring.
"Look, papa," said Penrod. "I found your shoes where you"d taken "em off in your room, to put on your slippers, and they were all dusty. So I took "em out on the back porch and gave "em a good blacking. They shine up fine, don"t they?"
"Well, I"ll be d-dud-dummed!" said the startled Mr. Schofield.
Penrod was zigzagging back to normal.
CHAPTER XXIV "LITTLE GENTLEMAN"
The midsummer sun was stinging hot outside the little barber-shop next to the corner drug store and Penrod, undergoing a toilette preliminary to his very slowly approaching twelfth birthday, was adhesive enough to retain upon his face much hair as it fell from the shears. There is a mystery here: the tonsorial processes are not unagreeable to manhood; in truth, they are soothing; but the hairs detached from a boy"s head get into his eyes, his ears, his nose, his mouth, and down his neck, and he does everywhere itch excruciatingly. Wherefore he blinks, winks, weeps, twitches, condenses his countenance, and squirms; and perchance the barber"s scissors clip more than intended--belike an outlying f.l.a.n.g.e of ear.
"Um--muh--OW!" said Penrod, this thing having happened.
"D" I touch y" up a little?" inquired the barber, smiling falsely.
"Ooh--UH!" The boy in the chair offered inarticulate protest, as the wound was rubbed with alum.
"THAT don"t hurt!" said the barber. "You WILL get it, though, if you don"t sit stiller," he continued, nipping in the bud any attempt on the part of his patient to think that he already had "it."
"Pfuff!" said Penrod, meaning no disrespect, but endeavoring to dislodge a temporary moustache from his lip.
"You ought to see how still that little Georgie Ba.s.sett sits," the barber went on, reprovingly. "I hear everybody says he"s the best boy in town."
"Pfuff! PHIRR!" There was a touch of intentional contempt in this.
"I haven"t heard n.o.body around the neighbourhood makin" no such remarks," added the barber, "about n.o.body of the name of Penrod Schofield."
"Well," said Penrod, clearing his mouth after a struggle, "who wants "em to? Ouch!"
"I hear they call Georgie Ba.s.sett the "little gentleman,"" ventured the barber, provocatively, meeting with instant success.
"They better not call ME that," returned Penrod truculently. "I"d like to hear anybody try. Just once, that"s all! I bet they"d never try it ag----OUCH!"
"Why? What"d you do to "em?"
"It"s all right what I"d DO! I bet they wouldn"t want to call me that again long as they lived!"
"What"d you do if it was a little girl? You wouldn"t hit her, would you?"
"Well, I"d----Ouch!"