Charity boy!
This slur, which Dick felt to be utterly undeserved, stung him more than anything Luke could have said.
He turned pale with sudden rage, and his temper burst forth with a violence all the more terrible because held so long in check.
Snatching up the pail of water as though it were a feather, he dashed its contents over his tormentor, drenching him from head to foot.
If the heavens had fallen, Luke Maslin couldn’t have been more astonished.
That Dick Armstrong, the despised factotum of the establishment, would dare to resent any aggression on his part was something Luke had not dreamed of.
Heretofore when he chose to bully his father’s drudge the boy had submitted with the best grace he could.
Now Dick actually had the temerity not only to resist, but to assume the offensive.
After the first sputtering gasp of surprise, Luke recovered himself and sprang at Dick with a howl of the fury that fairly blazed from his eyes.
Realizing that he was in for trouble, Armstrong prepared to defend himself to the best of his ability.