He gave a panting laugh.

Instantly, all saw the weaker blade fly wide, the stronger swerve, to dart in victorious,--and then saw Doctor Chantel staggering backward, struck full in the face by something round and heavy.

The brown missile skipped along the garden path.
Another struck a bottle-end, and burst into milk-white fragments, like a bomb.

A third, rebounding from Teppich's girdle, left him bent and gasping.

Strange yells broke out, as from a tribe of apes.