bush
him, and kill him. Terry now played the part with a naturalness
and force which soon lifted the play away from the farcical element
introduced into it by those who had interpolated the gibes at himself.
They had gone a step too far.

"He's going large," said Gow Johnson, as the act drew near its close,
and the climax neared, where O'Ryan was to enter upon a physical
struggle with his assailants. "His blood's up. There'll be hell to pay."

To Gow Johnson the play had instantly become real, and O'Ryan an injured
man at bay, the victim of the act--not of the fictitious characters of
the play, but of the three men, Fergus, Holden, and Constantine Jopp,
who had planned the discomfiture of O'Ryan; and he felt that the
victim's resentment would fall heaviest on Constantine Jopp, the bully,
an old schoolmate of Terry's.

Jopp was older than O'Ryan by three years, which in men is little, but
in boys, at a certain time of life, is much. It means, generally, weight
and height, an advantage in a scrimmage. Constantine Jopp had been the
plague and tyrant of O'Ryan's boyhood. He was now a big, leering fellow
with much money of his own, got chiefly from the coal discovered on his
place by Vigon, the half-breed French Canadian. He had a sense of dark
and malicious humour, a long horse-like face, with little beady eyes and
a huge frame.

Again and again had Terry fought him as a boy at school, and often he
had been badly whipped, but he had never refused the challenge of an
insult when he was twelve and Jopp fifteen. The climax to their enmity
at school had come one day when Terry was seized with a cramp while
bathing, and after having gone down twice was rescued by Jopp, who
dragged him out by the hair of the head. He had been restored to
consciousness on the bank and carried to his home, where he lay ill for
days. During the course of the slight fever which followed the accident
his hair was cut close to his head. Impetuous always, his first thought
was to go and thank Constantine Jopp for having saved his life. As soon
as he was able he went forth to find his rescuer, and met him suddenly
on turning a corner of the street. Before he could stammer out the
gratitude that was in his heart, Jopp, eyeing him with a sneering smile,
said drawlingly:

"If you'd had your hair cut like that I couldn't have got you out,
could I? Holy, what a sight! Next time I'll take you by the scruff,
putty-face--bah!"

That was enough for Terry.