Her action and noise he identified as unfriendly, and he became alert and watchful, prepared for whatever hostile act she might next commit.
Again she cried out and stamped her foot.

The only effect on Jerry was to make him transfer his watchfulness to the foot.

This slowness in getting away, now that she had released him, was too much for her short temper.

She launched the kick, and Jerry, avoiding it, slashed her ankle.
War broke on the instant, and that she might have killed Jerry in her rage was highly probable had not Lamai appeared on the scene.

The stick untied from Jerry's neck told the tale of her perfidy and incensed Lamai, who sprang between and deflected the blow with a stone poi-pounder that might have brained Jerry.
Lamai was now the one in danger of grievous damage, and his mother had just knocked him down with a clout alongside the head when poor Lumai, roused from sleep by the uproar, ventured out to make peace.