"Why don"t he come in?" said Mr. Polly.
"He seems to want you out there."
"What"s he want?"
"I _think_," said the spectacled young man after a thoughtful moment, "he appears to have brought you a present of fish."
"Isn"t he shouting?"
"He _is_ a little boisterous."
"He"d better come in."
The manner of the spectacled young man intensified. "I wish you"d come out and persuade him to go away," he said. "His language--isn"t quite the thing--ladies."
"It never was," said the plump woman, her voice charged with sorrow.
Mr. Polly moved towards the door and stood with his hand on the handle. The gold-spectacled face disappeared.
"Now, my man," came his voice from outside, "be careful what you"re saying--"
"Oo in all the World and Hereafter are you to call me, me man?" cried Uncle Jim in the voice of one astonished and pained beyond endurance, and added scornfully: "You gold-eyed Geezer, you!"
"Tut, tut!" said the gentleman in gilt gla.s.ses. "Restrain yourself!"
Mr. Polly emerged, poker in hand, just in time to see what followed.
Uncle Jim in his shirtsleeves and a state of ferocious decolletage, was holding something--yes!--a dead eel by means of a piece of newspaper about its tail, holding it down and back and a little sideways in such a way as to smite with it upward and hard. It struck the spectacled gentleman under the jaw with a peculiar dead thud, and a cry of horror came from the two seated parties at the sight. One of the girls shrieked piercingly, "Horace!" and everyone sprang up. The sense of helping numbers came to Mr. Polly"s aid.
"Drop it!" he cried, and came down the steps waving his poker and thrusting the spectacled gentleman before him as once heroes were wont to wield the ox-hide shield.
Uncle Jim gave ground suddenly, and trod upon the foot of a young man in a blue shirt, who immediately thrust at him violently with both hands.
"Lea go!" howled Uncle Jim. "That"s the chap I"m looking for!" and pressing the head of the spectacled gentleman aside, smote hard at Mr.
Polly.
But at the sight of this indignity inflicted upon the spectacled gentleman a woman"s heart was stirred, and a pink parasol drove hard and true at Uncle Jim"s wiry neck, and at the same moment the young man in the blue shirt sought to collar him and lost his grip again.
"Suffragettes," gasped Uncle Jim with the ferule at his throat.
"Everywhere!" and aimed a second more successful blow at Mr. Polly.
"Wup!" said Mr. Polly.
But now the jam and egg party was joining in the fray. A stout yet still fairly able-bodied gentleman in white and black checks enquired: "What"s the fellow up to? Ain"t there no police here?" and it was evident that once more public opinion was rallying to the support of Mr. Polly.
"Oh, come on then all the LOT of you!" cried Uncle Jim, and backing dexterously whirled the eel round in a destructive circle. The pink sunshade was torn from the hand that gripped it and whirled athwart the complete, but unadorned, tea things on the green table.
"Collar him! Someone get hold of his collar!" cried the gold-spectacled gentleman, coming out of the scrimmage, retreating up the steps to the inn door as if to rally his forces.
"Stand clear, you blessed mantel ornaments!" cried Uncle Jim, "stand clear!" and retired backing, staving off attack by means of the whirling eel.
Mr. Polly, undeterred by a sense of grave damage done to his nose, pressed the attack in front, the two young men in violet and blue skirmished on Uncle Jim"s flanks, the man in white and black checks sought still further outflanking possibilities, and two of the apprentice boys ran for oars. The gold-spectacled gentleman, as if inspired, came down the wooden steps again, seized the tablecloth of the jam and egg party, lugged it from under the crockery with inadequate precautions against breakage, and advanced with compressed lips, curious lateral crouching movements, swift flashings of his gla.s.ses, and a general suggestion of bull-fighting in his pose and gestures. Uncle Jim was kept busy, and unable to plan his retreat with any strategic soundness. He was moreover manifestly a little nervous about the river in his rear. He gave ground in a curve, and so came right across the rapidly abandoned camp of the family in mourning, crunching a teacup under his heel, oversetting the teapot, and finally tripping backwards over the hamper. The eel flew out at a tangent from his hand and became a mere looping relic on the sward.
"Hold him!" cried the gentleman in spectacles. "Collar him!" and moving forward with extraordinary prompt.i.tude wrapped the best tablecloth about Uncle Jim"s arms and head. Mr. Polly grasped his purpose instantly, the man in checks was scarcely slower, and in another moment Uncle Jim was no more than a bundle of smothered blasphemy and a pair of wildly active legs.
"Duck him!" panted Mr. Polly, holding on to the earthquake. "Bes"
thing--duck him."
The bundle was convulsed by paroxysms of anger and protest. One boot got the hamper and sent it ten yards.
"Go in the house for a clothes line someone!" said the gentleman in gold spectacles. "He"ll get out of this in a moment."
One of the apprentices ran.
"Bird nets in the garden," shouted Mr. Polly. "In the garden!"
The apprentice was divided in his purpose. And then suddenly Uncle Jim collapsed and became a limp, dead seeming thing under their hands. His arms were drawn inward, his legs bent up under his person, and so he lay.
"Fainted!" said the man in checks, relaxing his grip.
"A fit, perhaps," said the man in spectacles.
"Keep hold!" said Mr. Polly, too late.
For suddenly Uncle Jim"s arms and legs flew out like springs released.
Mr. Polly was tumbled backwards and fell over the broken teapot and into the arms of the father in mourning. Something struck his head--dazzingly. In another second Uncle Jim was on his feet and the tablecloth enshrouded the head of the man in checks. Uncle Jim manifestly considered he had done all that honour required of him, and against overwhelming numbers and the possibility of reiterated duckings, flight is no disgrace.
Uncle Jim fled.
Mr. Polly sat up after an interval of an indeterminate length among the ruins of an idyllic afternoon. Quite a lot of things seemed scattered and broken, but it was difficult to grasp it all at once. He stared between the legs of people. He became aware of a voice, speaking slowly and complainingly.
"Someone ought to pay for those tea things," said the father in mourning. "We didn"t bring them "ere to be danced on, not by no manner of means."
X
There followed an anxious peace for three days, and then a rough man in a blue jersey, in the intervals of trying to choke himself with bread and cheese and pickled onions, broke out abruptly into information.
"Jim"s lagged again, Missus," he said.
"What!" said the landlady. "Our Jim?"
"Your Jim," said the man, and after an absolutely necessary pause for swallowing, added: "Stealin" a "atchet."
He did not speak for some moments, and then he replied to Mr. Polly"s enquiries: "Yes, a "atchet. Down Lammam way--night before last."
"What"d "e steal a "atchet for?" asked the plump woman.
""E said "e wanted a "atchet."