One is inclined to draw a veil over the events that immediately followed. The general pandemonium was made of several mini-events, each contributing to the overall chaos. Bunny Mottau lay bleeding on the floor as if in the eye of a cyclone that raged around and in which Totoboy tried to drag Iris away, and Babyboy Nathanielsz punched Miko Sampson in the throat and Pippie Nellie threw glasses at the fishtank. Soon everybody was hitting everybody else and ladies raised their skirts and fled shrieking, some to the road, others to bedrooms and the rear garden, where Dolly Loos tried to climb a fence, got snagged on the barbed wire, and bayed at the moon. Iris, surprisingly, went meekly. Totoboy had her out on the Galle road quickly enough, which was most creditable considering the state he was in. Inside there was confusion of breaking chairs and the sound of unpleasant thuds and screeches and someone saying 'graaaah' as though he was being garrotted. Socks Joachim wanted no part of it. He crept underneath the dining-table and waited out the storm. 'This what happens when give arrack,' he told himself dolefully.
