"Now then, you have upset this room. Just put it straight again, and look sharp about it!" he said. "And please to understand that Charlton and I are chums, and mean to stick together. Oh, and I want a word with you"—and he walked up to Dobson, who turned a trifle more pasty-looking than before. "Do you know what these are?"
Ralph produced two wads of chewed blotting-paper from his pocket as he spoke, and Dobson blustered—
"You keep to your chum, since you are so thick with him. I don't want anything to do with you. I say, you chaps, are you going to let him crow over you like this? Rush him!"
"Good advice; only, why don't you do the rushing first?" said Ralph. "I asked you if you recognized these. If you don't, I will tell you what they are—they are pieces of blotting-paper, which you chewed and then threw at me. They came out of your mouth, and they are going back there again—when I have mopped up this ink which you have spilt." Ralph suited the action to the word, and presented the two unpalatable-looking objects to Dobson, who was at once a coward and a bully. "Now, then, open your mouth!"
"I won't! Who do you think that you are? I—— Oh!"
For Ralph did not argue. He grabbed hold of Dobson, and with a quick jerk sent him backwards across the little study table.
"Oh, oh! You are breaking my back!" howled the bully.
"Open your mouth!"
"I won't! Oh, help me, you fellows—he will break my back! Oh! Ugh! Ow! I am choking!" For, just as he opened his mouth to yell, Ralph had pushed both those pieces of blotting-paper in.
"Now, then, take them," he said. "Quick, or it will be the worse for you!"