Brawn sprang at once upon his man and brought him down.
"BRAWN SPRANG AT ONCE UPON HIS MAN"
He shook the wretch as if he had been but a rat, and blood flowed freely.
Burly Bill was not far off, and just as the great hound had all but fixed the savage by the windpipe, which he would undoubtedly have torn out, Bill pulled him off by the collar and pacified him.
The blood-stained Indian started to his legs to make good his retreat, but as his back was turned in flight, Bill rushed after him and dealt him a kick that laid him prone on his face.
This was the signal for a general mêlée, and a terrible one it was!
Bill got Peggy pulled to one side, and gave her in charge to Dick, who had come thundering across on his huge horse towards the scene of conflict.
Under the shelter of a spreading tree Dick lifted his precious charge. But she speedily revived when he laid her flat on the ground. She smiled feebly and held out her hand, which Dick took and kissed, the tears positively trickling over his cheeks.
Perhaps it was a kind of boyish impulse that caused him to say what he now said: