The Man pointed at the stairs and says something in a commanding voice. The three started at us again, but there wasn’t any rush about it. They had their plateful of rushing on those stairs. No, sir, they didn’t hurry a bit. You’d have thought maybe they were climbing up to have a tooth pulled, hanging on to the rail and stepping soft and easy. Even at that the stairs were so slippery they could hardly hold their feet.
We stood at the top and laughed at them. That was about all we could do. We laughed, but that didn’t mean we were easy in our minds—I should say not. Those fellows looked mad. I felt as if somebody was waving his hand up and down inside my stummick, and my legs were trembly, and I wished I was back in Michigan with lots of room to run.
“How d’you feel?” says I to Mark.
“Lonesome,” says he, and grinned sickly-like.
That was the very word for it. There was company enough, too much of it if you come to that, but I was never so lonesome before, and I don’t expect ever to be so lonesome again.
The first man, hanging on to the rail with one hand, was near enough now so Plunk could swipe at him with his lance. The lance, you remember, was a long stick with a wad on the end bigger than a boxing-glove. It wouldn’t hurt anybody much to get a wallop with it, but it would bother them considerable. It bothered the Japanese, for Plunk drew back and gave him a good one right alongside the ear.
The man grunted and threw up his arm. Plunk banged him again, and he sort of wabbled.
“Poke him quick while he’s off his b-b-b-balance!” yelled Mark; and Plunk did.
The Jap did a funny little dance on his toes, grabbed for the rail and missed it, whirled around with his arms waggling, and sat down ker-sloosh! Then he coasted right against the legs of the other two and pushed their feet off the steps so they plumped down right on top of him like he was a sled, and coasted all the way down on him. I’ll bet he enjoyed it!
“T-t-toboggan slide,” Mark says. “Guess they don’t have ’em in Japan. They act like they didn’t understand slidin’ very well.”