Rufus laughed, mockingly.
"Don't laugh at me," Gervase roared. "I won't have it. Because you rendered Miss Grover a service you think you have a right to hang about this place at all hours of the day, so that you may intercept her when she goes out for a walk, and poison her mind against her best friends."
"It is a lie," Rufus said, fiercely. "I have neither intercepted her nor poisoned her mind."
"Will you call me a liar?" Gervase almost shrieked.
"Of course I will call you a liar when you make statements that are false."
"Then take——"
But the blow failed to reach its mark. Rufus sprang aside, his face white with anger, and almost before he knew what he had done, his heavy fist had loosened one of the Captain's teeth and considerably altered the shape of his nose.
With a wild yell of rage the Captain struck out again, but he was so blind with rage that he could hardly see what he did. Moreover, this was a kind of combat he was not used to. With sword or rapier he could have made a very good show, but with his bare fists, in the light of the stars, he was at very considerable disadvantage. His second blow was as wild as the first, and when a blow between his eyes laid him prone on the ground, he began to yell for help at the top of his voice.
Micah Martin, the gardener, who lived at the lodge, was on the scene in a very few moments.
"Take the drunken brute away," Gervase screamed, "or he'll murder me."