"Got you this time!" he screamed to Joe, his face distorted with hate. "Mr. Spink!" he cried to somebody who must have been near by.
The engineer made a grab at him and seized him by the head.
"Got you, ye mean!" he bellowed and jerked the other bodily into the room. "Ah, ye dirty spyin tyke!—I'll learn you!"
He heaved his enemy from his knees to his feet and closed with him. The struggle was that of a parrot in the clutch of a tiger.
Joe carried his enemy to the door and slung him out head first. Alf brought up with a bang against a big car which had just drawn up outside.
A little lady sat in it.
"Will you get out of my way, please?" she said coldly to the man sprawling on his hands and knees in the dust at her feet, as she proceeded to descend.
The prostrate man raised his eyes and blinked. The lady passed him by as she might have passed a dead puppy lying in the road.
Joe crossed the path and examined with a certain detached interest, the door of the car against which Alf's head had crashed.
"Why, yo've made quite a dent in your nice car," he said. "Pity." And he walked away down the street after Mr. Spink who was retiring discreetly round the corner.