outed the other; 'let me go, I say. I will smash him
to atoms. Upon my honor and reputation, he shall not escape me this
way--I'll send him home a hoop--a triangle--a zoologist. I'll beat him
into mustard, the cowardly scoundrel! And only you were a magistrate,
father, I would have done it before you. Let me go, I say--the M'Clutchy
blood is up in me! Father, you're a scoundrel if you hold me! You
know what a lion I am--what a raging lion, when roused. Hands off,
M'Clutchy, I say, when you know I'm a thunderbolt.'

"The tugging and pulling that took place here between the father and son
were extraordinary, and I could not in common decency decline assisting
the latter to hold him in. I consequently lent him my aid seriously; but
this only made things worse:--the more he was held, the more violent and
outrageous he became. He foamed at the mouth--stormed--swore--and tore
about with such vehemence, that I really began to think the fellow was a
dull flint, which produced, fire slowly, but that there was fire in
him. The struggle still proceeded, and we pulled and dragged each other
through every part of the house:--chairs, and tables, and office-stools
were all overturned--and Phil's cry was still for war.

"It's all to no purpose,' he shouted--'I'll not leave an unbroken bone
in that scoundrel Hartley's body.'

"'I know you wouldn't, if you got at him,' said Val. 'He would certainly
be the death of him,' he added aside tome; 'he would give him some fatal
blow, and that's what I'm afraid of.'

"Phil was now perfectly furious--in fact he resembled a drunken man, and
might have passed for such.

"'Hartley, you scoundrel, where are you, till I make mummy of you?' he
shouted.

"'Here I am,' replied Hartley, entering' the room, walking up to him,
and looking him sternly in the face--'here I am--what's your will with
me?'

"So comic a paralysis was, perhaps, never witnessed. Phil stood
motionless, helpless, speechless. The white cowardly froth rose to
his lips, his color became ashy, his jaw fell, he shook, shrunk into
himself, and gasped for breath--his eyes became hollow, his squint
deepened, and such was his utter prostration of strength, that his very
tongue lolled out with weakness, like that of a newly dropped calf, when
attempting to stand for the first time. At length he got out--

"'Hold! I believe, I'll restrain myself; but only my father's a
magistrate------'

"'Your father's a scoundrel, and you are anothe