The Mud Turtle absorbed the hoof oil as far as his equator. Then he
reacted with a series of undulations in which was all of the reserve
energy of the surging deep. Then he suddenly became quiet, except for
his rolling eyeballs, from which gleamed an exalted light.
"Dat sho' tamed you. Is yo' insides hot?"
The Mud Turtle's only reply was a sudden stiffening of his right leg,
followed a second later by a similar movement with his left. His right
arm extended violently; then the ham-sized fist on the end of his left
arm went through the plate glass window beside him. He leaped to the
centre of the smoking compartment. For a moment he danced on both feet,
and then he began to stage a movement compared to which a cyclone was
only a boy's-size disturbance. He combined the activity of a whirling
dervish with the technique of an earthquake.
The Wildcat retreated to the safety of the tapestry curtain which hung
in the doorway. There for a little while he conducted an innocent
bystander business, which presently ended in disaster. Up to the
moment, the Mud Turtle had been silent, but now from his throat came a
yelp which drowned the rattle of the train.
The Wildcat sought to calm him down. "How come? Boy, git tame. You'll
wake de white folks in dis car an' dey'll massacre you. Shut up befo'
dey gits you."
The Mud Turtle's only answer was a renewed succession of yells.
Suddenly he stopped short where he stood, and for a space of minutes he
regarded his companion with a pair of glassy eyes under whose hypnotic
spell the Wildcat began to shrivel.
"Don' look dat way. You's got de graveyard eye. You took too much hoof
oil," he said weakly. "Lemme put 'at blanket 'roun' you." He took one
step towards the centre of the compartment, and on the instant the Mud
Turtle leaped at him.
The Wildcat had been in many a ruckus abroad and at home, but home was
never like this, and the worst he saw in France was a busy time at
Chateau Thierry. This was different trouble and worse. The Wildcat
abandoned his tactics of fair fighting. He kicked and struck wildly at
the Mud Turtle without effect. He despaired of conquering the tornado
which writhed on the floor beside him. Then he succeeded in obtaining
the blanket in which the Mud Turtle had been wrapped. He manoeuvered
for three seconds and threw a hitch around the Mud Turtle's neck and
another one around his leg. An instant later the whirlwind was trussed
up and confined with a hard square knot.
The Mud Turtle's yells gave place to a series of snarling grunts,
punctuated now and then with the yowling scream invented some years
back by the female panther. The Wildcat secured a folded towel from the
rack above his head, and in a moment the panther was muffled. The
victor stood panting for a little while, gazing at the conquest which
still writhed and rolled on the floor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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