After catching his breath, the outlaw with whom Clay had been struggling lifted a pair of bloodshot eyes to Clay’s face and sprang at him, his huge fists clenched until the knuckles showed hard and white.
“You bum!” he shouted, lunging at the lad, “I’ll give you some of your own medicine! What do you mean by striking me?”
The blow would have landed squarely in the boy’s face, but the man who had picked him off the outlaw warded it off with a fist like a ham, and set the boy behind the great bulk of his own person. Clay was encouraged by this defense, and began hoping that he had found a friend instead of another enemy.
But this hope was soon shattered, for the newcomer produced a hard cord, which had evidently once been used as a fishline, and coolly proceeded to tie the boy’s wrists. This task completed to his satisfaction, he pushed the boy over on his bunk and tossed Mose on top of him.
“There!” he cried. “You keep quiet, or I’ll turn Sam loose on you! And, Sam, if you molest the boy again I’ll settle with you for it. I take it he had a right to fight for his boat! And the little coon! You keep your hands off him, too!”
The man called Sam flashed an ugly look out of his foxy, inflamed eyes and went out on deck. In a moment he was seen in the doorway again, dragging Captain Joe after him.
“Shall I pitch the dog overboard?” he asked, in a surly tone. “He took a piece out of my leg and I gave him a rap on the head. He’s knocked out!”
Clay sat up on the bunk and glared at the man, who was still holding the bulldog by the collar. At that moment, whatever the consequences, the fellow’s life would not have been worth a farthing if the boy had had a gun!
“Don’t let him kill the dog!” Clay said, appealing to the giant. “He’s a good fellow, that dog! Of course he bit that robber! He wouldn’t have been a good dog if he hadn’t. Take what you want on the boat, but let the dog live.”
The giant, who was at least six foot six inches in height and large in proportion, looked Captain Joe over after the manner of one acquainted with dogs while Clay awaited his decision anxiously.