christopher looked round at his motley crew and detected quite a lot of focussed hatred of steve : big dave , of course , did n't bother to conceal his hostility , but stood behind the younger , shorter man , fists clenched and head lowered in a way that , if steve had been able to see him , would probably have alarmed him seriously ; jock mclean lit up his pipe and held it tightly between his teeth pointing straight at steve 's jugular in a menacing way ; mrs stevenson , one of the woolly hat brigade - what was she thinking of , coming all this way ?