But just there a small hairy terrier exploded out at the gate, like a floor-mop impelled by some sort of internal combustion, which sent him off into a frenzy of yapping, incessantly jerked backwards by the explosive force of his own detonations.
1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, page 59