"I'll knock the face off you, when I get at you, Ponder!" stormed Osbody.
"You'll have to wash your own better than usual first," Ponder smartly retorted.
"Six paces to the rear with him," commanded Robin. "Prithee, Grain, if thou mindest not my chaff, step forward to receive thy new complexion."
Grain did no stepping forward—he was forcibly propelled by merciless knees from behind. Ash there was in plenty, and Robin did not stint it. In generous measure he smeared it all over Grain's features, being quick enough to save his fingers from the snapping teeth which viciously strove to bite them.
"Now there are two little nigger boys," said Robin, giving a final deft touch to Grain's chin. "Bring along another eight Squirms, and then there'll be ten."
What aching ribs the Merry Men acquired as the wriggling Squirms, one after another, had their faces well blackened by the charcoal of the fire! No revenge could have been more deliciously sweet. In vain did the wailing victims threaten to inform their respective housemasters if the performance did not cease. There was not a Merry Man who believed that they would dare to peach, nor, for the matter of that, was there one who would not have taken a swishing in preference to missing a lark such as this.
"Now," said Robin, "every mother's son of you would make an excellent Man Friday to Robinson Crusoe."
"Perhaps they'd rather think of themselves as the cannibals of Monkey Island," David of Doncaster suggested.
"Whichever they like," said Robin. "Oh, I can't laugh any longer—I'm positively weak with it! Rush them to the Forest edge, Merry Men, and give them a flying send-off. Good-bye, you gentlemen of colour!"
Knowing themselves to be fearful figures of fun, the limp and groaning Squirms allowed their rivals to push them out of the shrubbery and send them flying into the school-yard. Not even Osbody and Grain had any fighting spirit left. Holding their caps over their faces to hide themselves as best they could, they made a bee-line for the kitchens, where soap and hot water would be plentiful.