The Bars of Iron

E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Project Gutenberg Beginners Projects,
Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
The Bars of Iron
By Ethel M. Dell
1916
He hath broken the gates of brass: And smitten the bars of iron in sunder. Psalm cvii., 16.
I saw heaven opened. Revelation xix., II.
The Bars of Iron
Fight? I'll fight you with pleasure, but I shall probably kill you if I do. Do you want to be killed? Brief and contemptuous the question fell. The speaker was a mere lad. He could not have been more than nineteen. But he held himself with the superb British assurance that has its root in the British public school and which, once planted, in certain soils is wholly ineradicable.
The man he faced was considerably his superior in height and build. He also was British, but he had none of the other's careless ease of bearing. He stood like an angry bull, with glaring, bloodshot eyes.
He swore a terrific oath in answer to the scornful enquiry. I'll break every bone in your body! he vowed. You little, sneering bantam, I'll smash your face in! I'll thrash you to a pulp!
The other threw up his head and laughed. He was sublimely unafraid. But his dark eyes shone red as he flung back the challenge. All right, you drunken bully! Try! he said.