Another knife flashed and another shirt-tag was neatly severed.
Lew Veazie, who had been with Rupert and Gene, started to run, deeming discretion the better part of valor.

But he took only a step when he, too, went down.

And again an amputating knife did its work.

As soon as a shirt-tag was cut off, the amputator, flourishing it on the blade of his knife, like an Indian flaunting a scalp-lock, made a dash for the elm, where it was pinned up as a trophy.
Then it was found that a "taste" for shirt-tags had been created by this exciting bit of experience, and other men, who had been loudly laughing and cheering over the discomfiture of Chickering and his inane friends, found themselves suddenly on the ground, with wicked-looking knives flashing before their eyes, and their shirts being mutilated by the pressure of keen knife-blades.
In the midst of this "fun," Buck Badger arrived on the campus from his stolen interview with Winnie Lee.

Though his face wore a perplexed expression, it had lost its gloom.