Page:Stringer - Lonely O'Malley.djvu/167

 "Had enough? 'Nough?"—punctuating each query with a too well-directed fist.

And when Piggie, in a muffled and gasping voice, confessed that he had had enough, Lionel Clarence, who had arrived on the scene just in time to see the finishing stroke, being eager to exhibit his, recently acquired prowess, audaciously challenged Piggie himself, while Lonely continued to limp up and down in front of the speechless gang, shrilly and drunkenly demanding that some one step forth and fight with him.

This no one seemed willing to do, even after Lonely's individual challenges, carefully repeated up and down the line. So the New Boy stepped to the sidewalk, and turned to his new-made fiefs with a sudden grandly impatient sweep of the arm.

"Now move on, you kids, while I finish my job here!"

At which off-hand yet dramatic climax the scattered little cluster of boys moved off and melted away, while Annie Eliza dutifully brought back Lonely his rubber window-cleaner. That trembling youth, with a smeared but happy grin through the glass at his not altogether displeased parent, waited only for