and something soft and human squirmed rapidly to one side, giving a loud howl of pain and passionate entreaty.
Professor Barker Harrison s blood was up,
"Ho!" he shouted. "Dog! Swine! Traitor!" He made another stab with his rattan, connected again, and caused another, louder howl of pain and entreaty. "To-night I shall drink from thy blanched skull!"
The man whom he had poked fell on his knees and held up both his hands. He was a peaceful, elderly negro by the name of George Washington Jefferson Ransome, and he was not, as a rule, afraid of undergraduates, drunk or sober.
But this one was dangerous, he thought. He was singing of eating raw flesh and of bathing his mighty limbs in the blood of his enemies.
"Lawdamessy!" he bawled. "I ain't done yoh no ha'm, suh. Fo' de Lawd's sake, doan' yoh do dis 'yeah thing to me. I ain t yoh enemy! No, suh. Please … doan' yoh go an' bathe yoh mighty limbs in dis po' niggah's blood!"
The Professor did not reply. He stabbed again with his rattan cane.
But the old negro did not wait. He jumped
