The senior hesitated; the room grew breathlessly quiet.
“Take it back, I say!”
The big fellow tried to laugh, but his voice only grated.
“Damned if I will––hayseed,” he retorted with a meaning pause and accent.
Before the words were out of his mouth Landers had the man by the collar, and they were fighting like cats.
For a time things in that pit were very confused and very noisy. Both students were big and both were furiously angry. By rule they would have been very evenly matched, but in a rough-and-tumble scrimmage there was no comparison. The classes made silent and neutral spectators, as Landers swung the man around in the narrow pit like a whirlwind, and finally pushed him back into his seat.
“Now will you take it back!” he roared breathlessly, vigorously shaking his victim.
The hot lust of battle was upon the farmer, and he forgot that several hundred students were watching his every motion. 50
“Take it back,” he repeated, “or I’ll––” and he lifted the man half out of the seat.
The senior seized both arms of the chair, and looked up in a dazed sort of way.