CHAPTER III[ToC]
The onset was so sudden and swift, and the animal had received such a powerful impetus from his spring, that the burly robber went down with a tremendous crash.
Man and dog rolled together in the dirt, upsetting tables and chairs and raising a terrible uproar. The desperate wretch plunged his knife again and again into the body of the enraged spaniel; the latter only clinched his teeth tighter and endeavored to tear his enemy by main brute strength.
Madame Podvin, having been diverted from her original purpose by this unexpected mêlée, set up a scream that would have drowned an active calliope.
"That's our bird!" shouted the man who had been serving as Fouchette's footman.
Whereupon his partner and the two agents from the Préfecture who had been waiting within fell upon the struggling pair.
It was all over in a few seconds.