Dick watched them as they turned the corner and they would have passed out of his mind in a moment if he had not been startled all at once by a piercing scream.
“Help! Help!” came the cry ringing out upon the night.
Dick darted around the corner like a shot. He was certain that the cry had proceeded from the two girls and he was right.
There they stood backed against the iron railing of the corner house, with two young toughs, both very drunk, standing before them, laughing.
“You can’t pass us that way, ladies,” Dick heard one of the pair say. “We want to know your names and where you are going—that’s what.”
[“Hands off those ladies!”] cried Dick, running up.
[Right in front of them,] not ten feet away, a huge shiny head, long and flat, with an enormous mouth filled with horrible teeth and two great, glittering eyes set on the sides, projected over the rocks. “The monster!” shouted Dick, and instantly the head darted forward, followed by a long, sinewy neck.
Inset 1: [Mr. Martin Mudd.]
Inset 2: “[Hands off those Ladies.]”
“Mind your own business,” snarled one of the “lushers,” aiming a blow at Dick. “What is it to you?”
“This!” cried Dick, striking out from the shoulder and landing his fist between the fellow’s eyes, tumbling him back against the electric light pole.