“Oh, come on!” Case advised, in a kinder tone, “you’d better talk. I shall not hurt you. Did you get off that freight?”
Case had lowered his arm while speaking, and the intruder took advantage of the fact. He leaped backward, over the railing, to the floor of the car and jumped to the ground. It was all done so quickly that Case had no time to prevent the escape, and that would doubtless have been the last of the boy, so far as he was concerned, if a strange and unexpected element had not intruded into the case.
When Case stepped forward to the railing of the deck and looked down, he heard a cry of fright and saw a white figure and a brown one tumbling about on the ground.
“Let go—let go!” came a voice from out the entanglement.
This was followed by a snarling growl in which Case recognized the deep-chested voice of Captain Joe.
“Here!” the boy called out to the dog. “Let up, Captain Joe! Watch him, old fellow, but don’t eat him up!”
The dog separated himself from the tangle and sat up, his wrinkled nose, his twitching ears and jerking tail, apparently following every movement of his late antagonist.
“Did he bite you?” asked Case, hastening down to where the boy lay, not daring to make a move.
“I—I don’t know,” was the pitiful reply. “I think he tore my clothes, though.”
“Lucky he didn’t tear your throat,” Case commented. “Get up and come into the cabin. I want to know who you are, and why you are here. Keep away, Captain Joe!”