“I’m not afraid of you, you big——”
“Stop!” commanded Toby sternly. “I’ll take a hand myself now, and the first one of you who calls names will get a licking from me. I mean it. It may not be my business, but I’m going to make it that. Tubb, you sit down in that chair. Ramsey, you sit in the other one.”
Tubb, with a fleeting grin, obeyed unhesitatingly. Horace Ramsey looked rebellious, muttered, smeared his face anew with the gory handkerchief and finally subsided. There was no lavatory on the third floor of Whitson and the rooms up there were supplied with washstands. Toby poured water from pitcher to bowl and soaked a towel in it. Silence reigned save for occasional muffled gasps from Ramsey. Toby wrung the towel half dry.
“Hold that tight to your nose, Ramsey, and keep your head back as far as you can,” he directed. Ramsey twitched his heavy shoulders resentfully, but Toby tipped his chin back and planked the folded towel over the leaking nose. “That’s it. Hold it there with your hand. It will stop in a minute, I guess. Anyway, cold water will take the soreness out.”
“Yes, it will,” snuffled Ramsey. “I don’t think! He’s broken it, I tell you! I ought to see the doctor.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” replied Toby reassuringly. “Noses don’t break very easily. They feel broken lots of times when they’re just bruised.”
“I didn’t hit him hard enough——” began Tubb.
“You did, too! You—you hammered me!”
“No, I didn’t,” the other growled, “but I will the next time!”
“There isn’t going to be any next time,” said Toby quietly. He found a chair beside one of the beds and set it in front of the belligerents. Secretly, he was rather amused at the rôle he had assumed. He was no more than a year older than Tubb, and he might be Ramsey’s senior by even less; and he was far from certain that, should he be required to fulfill his threat, he was much more than a match for Tubb when it came to a fight. But he kept his doubts to himself and viewed the two with assurance. “Let’s get this cleared up now,” he went on pleasantly. “You two fellows will have to room together at least until Christmas recess, and you might just as well make up your minds to do it peacefully. What’s your objection to Tubb, Ramsey? You shut up, Tubb: you’ll have your say in a minute.”