He felt needle-sharp fangs rip his forearm. The most horrible part of the moment was that the wolf-dog sought his life in complete silence, without growl or snarl.
Then the great stallion screamed outside the hut and a gun roared. Nelson heard Nsharra's flying feet and silvery cry.
"Tark! Hatha — Ei! We go!"
"Nelson!" yelled Li Kin's startled voice.
Nelson became aware that the wolf-dog was no longer atop him. He scrambled to his feet, dazed and shaken.
The hut was empty. He stumbled to the door, and caromed into Li Kin. The little Chinese officer had his automatic in his hand and wore a stunned look in his spectacled eyes.
"I followed you, Nelson!" he babbled. "I saw you come to this hut with the girl but when I came near the stallion attacked me! I shot at it and missed."
"The girl? Where's the girl now?" Nelson cried. He was cold sober now and his daze was dissolving in red anger.
"She and the wolf burst out, knocked me over and fled!" Li Kin cried. "See, there they go!"
Nelson got a shadowy glimpse of a stallion and rider and a slinking wolf-shape racing westward down the dusty road in the uncertain starlight.