"Martain Rattler" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ballantyne R.M)

"Oh, sir, let me out! There's Bob Croaker with my kitten. He's going to drown
it. I know he is - he said he would; and if he does, aunty will die, for she
loves it next to me. And I must save it: and if you don't let me out-you'll be a
murderer!
At this concluding burst, Martin sprang forward and stood before the master with
clenched fists and a face blazing with excitement. The schoolmaster's gaze of
astonishment gradually gave place to a dark frown strangely mingled with a
smile, and when the boy concluded, he said quietly, "You may go."
No second bidding was needed. The door flew open with a bang, and the gravel of
the playground, spurned right and left, dashed against the window-panes as
Martin flew across it. The paling that fenced it off from the fields below was
low, but too high for a jump. Never a boy in all the school had crossed that
paling at a spring without laying his hands upon it, but Martin did. We do not
mean to say that he did anything superhuman; but he rushed at it like a charge
of cavalry, sprang from the ground like a deer, kicked away the top bar, tumbled
completely over, landed on his head and rolled down the slope on the other side
as fast as he could have run down-perhaps faster.
It would have required sharper eyes than yours or mine to have observed how
Martin got on his legs again; but he did it in a twinkling, and was half across
the field almost before you could wink, and panting on the heels of Bob Croaker.
Bob saw him coming, and instantly started off at a hard run, followed by the
whole school. A few minutes brought them to the banks of the stream, where Bob
Croaker halted, and, turning round, held the white kitten up by the nape of the
neck.
"Oh, spare it ! spare it, Bob ! - don't do it-please don't, don't do it! "
gasped Martin, as he strove in vain to run faster.
"There you go! " shouted Bob, with a coarse laugh, sending the kitten high into
the air, whence it fell with a loud splash into the water.
It was a dreadful shock to feline nerves, no doubt, but that white kitten was no
ordinary animal. Its little heart beat bravely when it rose to the surface, and
before
its young master came up it had regained the bank But, alas! what a change! It
went into the stream a fat, round, comfortable ball of eider-down; it came out -
a scraggy blotch of white paint, with its black eyes glaring like two great
glass beads! No sooner did it crawl out of the water than Bob Croaker seized it,
and whirled it round his head, amid suppressed cries of "Shame!" intending to
throw it in again; but at that instant Martin Rattler seized Bob by the collar
of his coat with both hands, and, letting himself drop suddenly, dragged the
cruel boy to the ground, while the kitten crept humbly away and hid itself in a
thick tuft of grass.
A moment sufficed to enable Bob Croaker, who was nearly twice Martin's weight to
free himself from the grasp of his panting antagonist, whom he threw on his
back, and doubled his fist, intending to strike Martin on the face; but a
general rush of the boys prevented this.
"Shame, shame! fair-play! " cried several; "don't hit him when he's down!"
"Then let him rise up and come on! " cried Bob fiercely, as he sprang up and
released Martin.
"Ay, that's fair. Now then, Martin, remember the kitten."
"Strike men of your own size ! " cried several of the bigger boys, as they
interposed to prevent Martin from rushing into the unequal contest.