"You mean, skulking
coward, to talk like that of men who have come over to fight in the
place of wretched gutter-snipes and quitters like you."
"Three of us here are Canadians" I added, "and if you will be so
accommodating as to step outside, any one of us will be delighted to
give you the darnedest licking you ever got in your life."
The skulker didn't even move. Captain E---- got worked up to the point
of explosion as he watched the fellow unconcernedly keep on eating.
"You snivelling cur I've a good mind to rub your face in that gravy,
by G-- I will rub it in that gravy!" exploded the Captain, and in the
instant he seized the dinner-plate in one hand and the fellow's head
in the other and brought them quickly together, rubbing the man's chin
and nose briskly round and round in the mixture of congealing gravy
and potatoes.
"Be very careful what you are about" sputtered the creature, looking
up when Captain E---- had desisted, and wiping the streaming grease
from his face with his pocket-handkerchief.
It was tremendously ludicrous; the utter spinelessness of the creature
so at variance with the boastful scorn of his previous words and tone
so obviously showed him to be a coward that all we could do was laugh
and turn away. You could no more think of striking that weak,
backboneless poltroon than of hitting a six months' old baby.
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