Seemingly this left gave Duke three lightning little pats upon the right ear; but the change in his voice indicated that these were no love-taps.

He yelled "help!" and "bloody murder!" Never had such a shattering uproar, all vocal, broken out upon a peaceful afternoon.

Gipsy possessed a vocabulary for cat-swearing certainly second to none out of Italy, and probably equal to the best there, while Duke remembered and uttered things he had not thought of for years.
The hum of the carpenter shop ceased, and Sam Williams appeared in the stable doorway.

He stared insanely.
"My gorry!" he shouted.

"Duke's havin' a fight with the biggest cat you ever saw in your life! C'mon!" His feet were already in motion toward the battlefield, with Penrod and Herman hurrying in his wake.