I don't allow anybody to interfere with me when I'm eating." Gray was checked less by the exasperation, by the authority in the speaker's tone, than by the fact that the entire complexion of the affair had changed.

The ruffian, who had entered so confidently, was no longer the aggressor; a mere look, a word, a gesture from this aged, unknown person had put him upon the defensive.

More extraordinary still was the fact that his power of initiative was for the moment completely paralyzed, and that he was tortured by a deplorable indecision.

He was furious, that was plain, nevertheless his anger had been halted in mid-flight, as it were; desperation battled with an inexplicable dread.
He raised his hands now, but more in a gesture of surrender than of threat.
"Don't come any closer," he cried, hoarsely.

"Don't do it, I tell you! _Don't--do it!_'" There was no longer any thickness to his tongue; he spoke as one quite sober.
When for the third time that malevolent voice repeated, "I don't allow anybody to interfere with me when I'm eating," the solitary onlooker felt an absurd desire to laugh.