He was none other than Bob. Leaping down from the mud wall before Jack and Frank could move to restrain him, big Bob launched himself like a thunderbolt at the Bone Crusher.
A shout of warning from his henchmen at his back caused the gigantic black to face about. But before he could put up any defense. Bob shot forward as if for a low football tackle. Many a time on the field he had swooped in just such irresistible fashion at the legs of an opposing player. But this time his intention was not merely to bring his man down.
His hands closed about the ankles of the Bone Crusher, and then he straightened up with startling swiftness. And for all his bulk, the Bone Crusher went hurtling through the air, over Bob’s shoulders, to fall, not amongst his own followers, but into the ranks of the enemy.
Had he fallen on his head, his neck might have snapped. For never had Bob put into that particular hold the viciousness he had employed now.
But in falling the Bone Crusher brushed against a warrior. His course was deflected. And instead of alighting on his head and shoulders, he fell on his side.
With a catlike agility not to be expected in a man so huge, he bounded up from the earth with an ear-splitting roar of rage, and ran foaming at the mouth toward Bob. Just what he intended will never be known.
Bob saw him coming and set himself. As the Bone Crusher lunged forward. Bob sidestepped and launched a triphammer blow with his right fist. It caught the Bone Crusher behind the point of the jaw with a thud that sounded like a dull explosion, and the huge Negro chieftain collapsed as if a mountain had fallen upon him. His great body jerked once or twice then lay still.
CHAPTER VIII
THE TIDE TURNS
The tide was turned. The next moment, as Bob, flushed with victory, prepared to leap in amongst the wavering mass of the Bone Crusher’s followers, Jack and Frank appeared at his side. Too well they knew the big fellow’s rashness when his blood was up to hold back any longer. Not that they had been holding back, however. So quickly had Bob acted that the passage of time since he had leaped down from the top of the wall and made his sudden attack on the Bone Crusher could be measured in seconds.
Jack and Frank had followed at once, Wimba at Frank’s heels like a faithful dog. Now they ranged themselves beside their comrade.