They halted, greatly surprised, and turned in their saddles and looked back, as if wondering if it might be worth while to bother with such scum as we.

Then they wheeled and started for us.

Not a moment must be lost.

I started for _them_.
I passed them at a rattling gait, and as I went by I flung out a hair-lifting soul-scorching thirteen-jointed insult which made the king's effort poor and cheap by comparison.

I got it out of the nineteenth century where they know how.