“By jove!” cried Stanley, jumping up.  “He’s going to show fight, is he?  Pass over that cane.  Now, bend over that chair, youngster.”

“I won’t.”

“Look here, you unutterable fool.  Here’s the cane.  See it?  If you do what you’re told you’ll get a stiff whacking, but if you don’t, by God, there’s no saying what you’ll get.”

Doe sprang forward, seized the cane, smashed it, and hurled the pieces into their midst.  “Now then, you cads, you can’t lick me, you brutes, you fools!  Come for me—­you lot of great devils!” He roared this at them, and the last words were shouted in a burst of hysterical crying.  With head down he charged into Stanley, crashing his fist on the senior prefect’s chin.

The outraged prefects lost their heads.  They surrounded him as he fought.  Above the turmoil came the cries:  “Get hold of the little devil!” “Pin his hands to his sides!” “He shan’t forget this!” “Trip him up, if you can’t do anything else!” “It’s not pluck, it’s temper!” “He’s down—­he’s up again!” “By jove, the little blackguard is going to beat the lot of you!” “Get him on the ground—­don’t be afraid to go for him—­he’s asked for it.”  “That’s right—­got his wrist?  Twist it!” “Devil take it, he’s wrenched it free again.”  “Get out of the light—­I’ll settle him!” “I’ve got him—­no, by God, I haven’t!”

Stanley, the first to recover himself, fell away from the rest.

“Come away, you fools.  There are ten of you.  Leave him alone.”

“Can’t help it!” yelled back Banana-Skin.  “It’s his fault.  Let him have it.  That’s right.  Get him against the wall.”

“Come away, you fools!” And Stanley began to pull them off and fling them away furiously.  Banana-Skin had a shock when he found himself seized and hurled against the opposite wall.

It had been well had Stanley done this earlier, for Doe, turning very white, fell forwards.

“Heaven save us!” exclaimed Stanley, as white as Doe.  “We’ve done it now.  What brutes we are!  Lock the door.  He’s fainted.  By heaven, I wish this had never happened!”

Doe had not fainted.  He was in a state of semi-unconsciousness when he knew where he was, but it was a long way off—­when he heard all that was said, but it came from a great distance—­when neither his position nor the sound of voices was of any interest to him, and his only desire was to pass into complete unconsciousness, which would bring rest and sleep.  He felt them catch hold of him, one by the armpits and another by the ankles, and knew that he was being lifted on to a table.

Then the voices began from the top of a great well, while he lay at the bottom.  He could hear what they said; but why would they persist in talking and keeping him awake?  He was indifferent to them:  they were like voices in a railway carriage to a dozing traveller.

“I wouldn’t have thought he had so much in him.”

“Oughtn’t we to undo his collar?”