In all the confidence of assured victory, Mr. Nathan Badger, seeing the dim outline of a figure upon the bed, had brought down his stick upon it with emphasis.
“I’ll l’arn you!” he muttered in audible accents.
It was a rude awakening for Tom Tapley, the tramp, who was sleeping as peacefully as a child.
The first blow aroused him, but left him in a state of bewilderment, so that he merely shrank from the descending stick without any particular idea of what had happened to him.
“Didn’t feel it, did yer?” exclaimed Mr. Badger. “Well, I’ll see if I can’t make yer feel it!” and he brought down the stick for the second time with considerably increased vigor.
By this time Tom Tapley was awake. By this time also he thoroughly understood the situation or thought he did. He had been found out, and the farmer had undertaken to give him a lesson.
“That depends on whether you’re stronger than I am,” thought Tom, and he sprang from the bed and threw himself upon the astonished farmer.
Nathan Badger was almost paralyzed by the thought that Bill Benton, his hired boy, was absolutely daring enough to resist his lawful master. He was even more astounded by Bill’s extraordinary strength. Why, as the boy grappled with him, he actually felt powerless. He was crushed to the floor, and, with the boy’s knee upon his breast, struggled in vain to get up. It was so dark that he had not yet discovered that his antagonist was a man and not a boy.
Nathan Badger had heard that insane persons are endowed with extraordinary strength, and it flashed upon him that the boy had become suddenly insane.
The horror of being in conflict with a crazy boy so impressed him that he cried for help.