7. Tom was sitting at the bottom of his bed unlacing his boots, so that
his back was towards Arthur, and he did not see what had happened, and
looked up in wonder at the sudden silence. Then two or three boys laughed
and sneered, and a big, brutal fellow, who was standing in the middle of
the room, picked up a slipper and shied it at the kneeling boy, calling
him a sniveling young shaver.
8. Then Tom saw the whole, and the next moment the boot he had just pulled
off flew straight at the head of the bully, who had just time to throw up
his arm and catch it on his elbow. "Confound you, Brown; what's that for?"
roared he, stamping with pain. "Never mind what I mean," said Tom,
stepping on to the floor, every drop of blood in his body tingling: "if
any fellow wants the other boot, he knows how to get it."
9. What would have been the result is doubtful, for at this moment the
sixth-form boy came in, and not another word could be said. Tom and the
rest rushed into bed and finished their unrobing there, and the old
janitor had put out the candle in another minute, and toddled on to the
next room, shutting the door with his usual, "Good night, gen'l'm'n.
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