At the name—“Mr. Doane”—Brachey stopped short (one foot was already on the first of the three or four steps) and stiffened, his shoulders drawn back, his head high, Doane, too, stopped, peering down.
“Mr. Doane,” said the younger man, firmly but perhaps in a slightly louder tone than was necessary, “I am Jonathan Brachey.”
A hush fell on the group of them—Brachey waiting at the bottom step, Boatwright just behind him. Dr. Cassin barely visible in the shadows of the porch, silhouetted faintly against the light of a candle somewhere within, and Griggsby Doane staring down in astonishment at the man who stood looking straight up at him.
Brachey apparently was about to speak again. Perhaps he did begin. Boatwright found it impossible afterward to explain in precise detail just what took place. But the one clear fact was that Doane, with an exclamation that was not a word, seemed to leap down the steps, waving his stick about his head. There was the sound of a few heavy blows; and then Brachey lay huddled in a heap on the the walk, and Doane stood over him, breathing very hard..
Dr. Cassin hurried down the steps and knelt lie-side the silent figure there. To Elmer Boatwright she said, briskly: “My medicine case is in your room. Bring it at once, please? And bring water.”
Boatwright vaguely recalled, afterward, that he muttered, “I beg your pardon,” as he finished past Doane and ran up the steps. And he heard the sound of some, one running heavily toward them.
When he came out the scene was curiously changed.
Some of the natives were there, and one or two whites. An iron lantern with many perforations to let out the candle-light stood on the tiles. One of the Chinese held another. Dr. Cassin was seated on the ground examining a wound on Brachey's scalp; and the man himself was struggling back toward consciousness, moving his arms restlessly, and muttering.
But the voice that dominated the little group that stood awkwardly about was the voice of M. Pourmont.
Doane had sunk down on the steps, his head in his hands. And over him, somewhat out of breath, gesturing emphatically with raised forefinger, the engineer was speaking as follows: