Karl Weisel put his fat hands into his deep pockets, rose from his chair, and walked back and forth upon the platform.
“This quarrel is most unseemly,” remarked Adolph Schneider, who had been leaning on his cane and idly listening.
“Speak!” said Gerson Brandt. “Thou shalt not leave this room until thou hast taken back thy words.”
Karl Weisel laughed, but in an instant the school-master had sprung upon the platform. He clutched the man by the collar, and, with the strength born of a tremendous indignation, he shook the heavy body of Karl Weisel until the elder’s teeth chattered.
“Loose thine hold upon me!” cried Karl Weisel, who had turned pale with terror.
Gerson Brandt flung him off. He knew he had forgotten all the precepts of the colony, but again the elder laughed, this time to disguise his fright.
“I give thee a chance to defend thyself,” said Gerson Brandt. “As man to man we shall fight this out.”
Adolph Schneider put himself between the two combatants, but Gerson Brandt, stepping past him, dragged Karl Weisel to the open space beside the platform, and there, facing him, said:
“I give thee thy last opportunity to beg my pardon.”
Karl Weisel did not open his lips. Instead, he covertly measured the distance to the door, and with a movement of unusual quickness turned in flight. He had not gone half a dozen steps before Gerson Brandt had him by the collar, and, dragging him back to his position, waited an instant for him to recover himself. Then he struck a blow that felled the elder.