We flashed into a hamlet, turned at
right angles, missed a waggon by an inch and flung up a frightful track
towards a farm....

Then, before I knew what had happened, we had stopped dead, and Jonah's
door was open and he was limping across the road.

In the jaws of a rude gateway stood a waggon of stones. Harnessed to
this were three sorry-looking mules and, leading them, the piteous
wreck of what had been a blue roan. The latter was down--and out.

For this the immediate reason was plain.

The teamster, better qualified for the treadmill, had so steered his
waggon that the hub of its off fore wheel had met the gatepost. This
he had not observed, but, a firm believer in the omnipotency of the
lash, had determined to reduce the check, whatever might be its cause,
by methods of blood and iron. Either because he was the most
convenient or by virtue of his status, the leader had received the
brunt of the attack. That is, of course, one way of driving....

The blue roan was down, and his master had just kicked him in the belly
when Jonah arrived.

The Spaniard was a big fellow, but my cousin has wrists of steel....
He took the whip from its owner as one takes a toy from a baby. Then
with the butt he hit him across the mouth. The Spaniard reeled, caught
his foot on a stone and fell heavily. Jonah threw down the whip and
took off his coat.

"I don't want to kill him," he said quietly.

When the other rose, he looked extremely ugly. This was largely due to
the fact that most of his front teeth were missing and that it was
difficult, because of the blood, to see exactly where his face ended
and his mouth began. The look in his eyes, however, was suggesting the
intent to kill.

He had no idea, of course, that he was facing perhaps the one man
living who could have thrashed a champion....

It is not often that you will see half a dozen of the most illustrious
members of the National Sporting Club attending an Assault-at-Arms held
at a public school. Three years running I had that honour. The
gentlemen came to see Jonah. And though no applause was allowed during
the boxing, they always broke the rule.... In due season my cousin
went to Oxford.... In his second year, in the Inter-University
contest, he knocked his opponent out in seven seconds. The latter
remained unconscious for more than six hours, each crawling one of
which took a year off Jonah's life. From that day my cousin never put
on the glov