"Have you got anything hard on you?" I asked Lenz.
"Only a bunch of keys, and I want that myself.
Get a small spanner."
"Better not," said I, "might do real damage.
Pity I have such light shoes.
Otherwise kicking might be best."
"Coming in?" Lenz asked the blacksmith. "Then we'll be four against four."
"I'm keeping out.
Don't want my show smashed up to-morrow.
I'm strictly neutral."
"Quite right," said Lenz. "I'm with you," announced Jupp.
"Don't you be rash," said I. "See that nobody comes, that's enough."
The blacksmith retired from us a space farther to emphasize his strict neutrality.
"Don't you talk tripe," I suddenly heard the biggest of the brothers Vogt growl at Koster. "First in, first served. Finish.
Now you shove off."
Koster explained once more that the car belonged to us.
He offered to drive Vogt to the sanatorium to find out for himself.
Vogt grinned contemptuously.
Lenz and I came nearer.
"Perhaps you'd like to go to the hospital yourself?" asked Vogt.
Koster did not answer, but walked up to the car.
The other three Vogts straightened up.
They were now standing close together.
"Give that trolley here," said Koster to us.
"Man—" replied the eldest Vogt.
He was a head taller than Koster.
"Sorry," said Koster, "but we're going to take the car."
Lenz and I sauntered still nearer, hands in our pockets.
Koster bent down to the car.
At the same moment Vogt rooted him aside with a kick.
Otto had reckoned with that; the same instant he had seized the leg and flung Vogt down.
Then he leapt up and hit the next of the brothers, who had just raised the starting handle, in the belly so that he reeled and fell likewise.
The next moment Lenz and I jumped for the other two.
I stopped one in the face at once.
It was not bad but my nose started to bleed, my next punch missed its mark and glanced off the other's greasy chin, then I got a second wipe in the eye and guarded so ill that with a belly punch the Vogt brought me down.
He pressed me upon the asphalt and gripped my throat.
I tensed the muscles so that he should not choke me and tried to bend and roll over in order to shove him off with my feet or to kick him in the guts.
But Lenz and his Vogt were struggling on top of my legs and I could not get free.
Despite the taut neck muscles I had difficulty in breathing; I could not get air because of my bleeding nose.
Gradually everything turned glassy around me. Vogt's face quivered before my face like jelly, and I felt black shadows in the back of my brain.
With a last glance I saw Jupp suddenly beside me—he was kneeling in the gutter by the roadside, calmly and attentively watching my struggles, and when the final pause seemed to have made all ready for him, struck Vogt's wrist with a hammer.
At the second blow Vogt let go and from the ground made a fierce grab at Jupp, who slipped back a foot or so and in all calmness landed him a third on the fingers and then one on the head.
I came up, rolled on top of Vogt, and in my turn set about strangling him.
At that moment there was a wild animal bellow and then a whimpering:
"Let go—let go!"
It was the eldest Vogt.
Koster had twisted his arm and forced it up his back.
Vogt had gone down with his head to the ground and Koster was now kneeling on him and twisting the arm farther.
Vogt yelled, but Koster knew that he must finish him properly if we were to be left in peace.
With a sudden jerk he wrenched his arm and then let him go. Vogt remained awhile lying on the ground.