"No got. Heem break chain one night, go off an' no come back. Mebby geet shot. She geet seek ver' soon an' die, seex moons gone."
They had met no one all morning, but they were only about half way up the hill when, almost without warning, a team swept around a bend in the trail. Coming down the hill they were traveling fast and, before Lucky could get his team out of the way, the two leaders had met. The boys were some thirty feet behind the sled and by the time they reached the scene of action the air seemed, as Jack afterward declared, full of dogs. The yelps and growls of the combatants drowned the voices of the Indian and the driver of the other team as they shouted orders to which the dogs paid not the slightest attention. There were six dogs in the other team and, for a moment, they seemed well matched so far as the boys could see, but soon even they could tell that the strangers were getting far the worst of it.
"Our dogs'll kill them," Bob shouted.
But the fight was over almost as quickly as it had started. The stranger's dogs, evidently realizing that they were outclassed, soon gave up the combat and shrank back whining piteously. Lucky's dogs did not press their advantage being apparently satisfied with the result. But the driver of the beaten team did not show as good judgment. He was a large burly man whose dark skin and high cheek bones indicated that he was a half breed. No sooner had the dogs separated than, with a snarl of rage, he drew an ugly looking revolver from his belt and aimed it at Lightning.
"Don't shoot him," Jack gasped.
Then an amazing thing took place. Lucky was about twelve feet from the breed when the latter drew his gun and, with a movement of his arm incredibly swift, his whip lash darted out and the end wrapped itself about the barrel of the revolver. Another quick movement and the gun was snatched from the man's hand and sent flying through the air to fall in the snow twenty feet away. The entire scene took place so swiftly that it was all over before the boys realized what had happened.
"Did you see that?" Bob gasped.
But before Jack could answer the breed had leaped for the Indian with a hoarse cry of rage. The boys held their breath wondering what was coming next, but they did not have long to wait. They had suspected that the Indian was possessed of great strength, but what they saw amazed them. As the breed rushed toward him the Indian bent his body slightly to meet the attack and the next instant they saw the stranger lifted bodily and thrown several feet to fall sprawling in the snow.
"How'd he do it?" Jack whispered.
"He did it all right," Bob replied. "Wonder if he's had enough."