Of course it is not to be expected that all this could have happened without attracting the attention of the gentlemen in the vestry room and of the boys in the armory. Several of the officers had run to the top of the stairs as soon as they heard the approach of the Poles, and when they reported to the Major, the latter at once ordered "Fix bayonets!" and drew his men up in column of twos facing the staircase. He had barely completed this formation, during which two of the trustees had urged the boys not to show themselves upstairs, when the Adjutant shouted from the doorway,
"Come on, fellows; they're killing old Tom!"
There was a swaying in the ranks, as if the impulse of all had been to rush; but Jack Downing shouted:
"Steady! Company A, forward, double time, march!"
Captain Taylor repeated the order sharply, and leaped in the van of his men, reaching the top of the staircase just in time to see half a dozen stones and bricks fly through the church doors.
He could hear Jack Downing below shouting orders to the other two companies. Taylor called to his men to form fours, and marched them straight down the steps toward the gateway. The other cadets followed close behind up the narrow staircase, and the Major sent one company to the left of Taylor's rear, and one to the right, so as to attack the strikers in three parallel columns.
The appearance of uniforms and bayonets from the church was a big surprise to the Polanders. They were so startled that they fell back to the middle of the street, leaving poor old Tom almost senseless on the sidewalk. Two non-commissioned officers of C Company helped him to his feet, and led him back into the vestry-room, where a corpulent old gentleman was telephoning madly for the police.
But in the mean time there were lively times in the street. The Poles, partly recovered from their surprise, snarled like animals, and spoke hard words in their own hard language, and many of them threw sticks and stones at the cadets. Jack Downing got his forces out into the street, where there was room to manœuvre, and formed a sort of wedge of bayonets with which he charged straight into the centre of the crowd. The iron-workers fell back like sheep, and as soon as he had the mob divided the young strategist wheeled one company against one section, and another company against the other section, and kept Company A in front of the church as a sort of reserve.
The Poles only threw two volleys of stones, and were then apparently so surprised at the advance of the cadets that they did not notice these were merely boys and only half their number. But they did notice that their opponents were disciplined, and that they carried shining bayonets pointing straight out in front of them; and when they saw a phalanx of these coming down the street they turned about and ran.
The Lincoln Cadets did not pursue. They halted on the street corners and formed skirmish-lines. But even this was unnecessary, for as they did so they heard the gongs of the patrol wagons, and soon a score of policemen were in the neighborhood of the church—and not a Pole in sight!