St.Paul's struck the first note of twelve, and from all the bestial mob arose a howl and roar.

Polperro happened to press against a drunken woman; she caught him by his disordered hair and tugged at it, yelling into his face.

To release himself he bent forward, pushing the woman away; the result was a violent blow from her fist, after which she raised a shriek as if of pain and terror.
Instantly a man sprang forward to her defence, and he, too, planted his fist between the eyes of the hapless peer.

Gammon saw at once that they were involved in a serious row, the very thing he had been trying to avoid.

He would not desert his friend, and was too plucky to see him ill-used with out reprisals.