He was a big, red-faced Irishman, coarse-featured, and smelling of liquor.  He saw Jurgis as he crossed the threshold, and turned white.  He hesitated one second, as if meaning to run; and in the next his assailant was upon him.  He put up his hands to protect his face, but Jurgis, lunging with all the power of his arm and body, struck him fairly between the eyes and knocked him backward.  The next moment he was on top of him, burying his fingers in his throat.

To Jurgis this man’s whole presence reeked of the crime he had committed; the touch of his body was madness to him—­it set every nerve of him atremble, it aroused all the demon in his soul.  It had worked its will upon Ona, this great beast—­and now he had it, he had it!  It was his turn now!  Things swam blood before him, and he screamed aloud in his fury, lifting his victim and smashing his head upon the floor.

The place, of course, was in an uproar; women fainting and shrieking, and men rushing in.  Jurgis was so bent upon his task that he knew nothing of this, and scarcely realized that people were trying to interfere with him; it was only when half a dozen men had seized him by the legs and shoulders and were pulling at him, that he understood that he was losing his prey.  In a flash he had bent down and sunk his teeth into the man’s cheek; and when they tore him away he was dripping with blood, and little ribbons of skin were hanging in his mouth.

They got him down upon the floor, clinging to him by his arms and legs, and still they could hardly hold him.  He fought like a tiger, writhing and twisting, half flinging them off, and starting toward his unconscious enemy.  But yet others rushed in, until there was a little mountain of twisted limbs and bodies, heaving and tossing, and working its way about the room.  In the end, by their sheer weight, they choked the breath out of him, and then they carried him to the company police station, where he lay still until they had summoned a patrol wagon to take him away.

Chapter 16

When Jurgis got up again he went quietly enough.  He was exhausted and half-dazed, and besides he saw the blue uniforms of the policemen.  He drove in a patrol wagon with half a dozen of them watching him; keeping as far away as possible, however, on account of the fertilizer.  Then he stood before the sergeant’s desk and gave his name and address, and saw a charge of assault and battery entered against him.  On his way to his cell a burly policeman cursed him because he started down the wrong corridor, and then added a kick when he was not quick enough; nevertheless, Jurgis did not even lift his eyes—­he had lived two years and a half in Packingtown, and he knew what the police were.  It was as much as a man’s very life was worth to anger them, here in their inmost lair; like as not a dozen would pile on to him at once, and pound his face into a pulp.  It would be nothing unusual if he got his skull cracked in the melee—­in which case they would report that he had been drunk and had fallen down, and there would be no one to know the difference or to care.