to rise.

At this show of resistance his two comrades, as by concerted signal,
threw themselves upon him. With a yell of angry fright Link collapsed
to earth under the dual impact.

CHAPTER II.

The Battle

He felt one of the men pinion his waving arms, while the other crouched
on his legs and proceeded to unpin the money pocket. Ferris struggled
for an instant in futile fury, trying to shout for help. The call was
strangled in his throat. But the help came to him, none the less.

Scarce three seconds had passed since the attempt to rob him had set
Link into action and had wrung from him that yell of consternation.

But in answer came a swirling patter of feet on the road, a snarl like
a wolf's, a shape that catapulted through the dark. Sixty pounds of
fur-swathed dynamic muscle smote athwart the shoulders of the man who
was unfastening the cash pocket's pin.

The impact hurled the fellow clean off his crouching balance and sent
him sprawling, face downward, his outflung hands splashing in the
margin of the lake. Before he could roll over or so much as stir, a set
of white fangs met in his shoulder-flesh. And he testified to his
injury by an eldritch screech of pain and terror that echoed far across
the water.

His companion, rallying from the momentary shock, left Ferris and
charged at the prostrate thief's assailant. But Chum met him, with a
fierce eagerness, more than half way.

A true collie--thanks to his strain of wolf bloodfights as does no
other dog. What he lacks in stubborn determination he atones for by
swiftness and by his uncanny brain power.

A bulldog, for example, would have flown to his master's relief quite
as readily as did Chum. But a bulldog would have secured the first
convenient hold and would have hung on to that hold, whether it were at
his victim's throat or only on the slack of his trousers--until someone
should hammer him into senselessness.

Chum--collie-fashion--was everywhere at once, using his brain far more
than his flying jaws. Finding the grip in his foe's shoulder did not
prevent the man from twisting round to grapple him, the collie shifted
that grip with lightning speed, and with one of his gleaming eyeteeth
slashed his opponent's halfturned cheek from eye to chin. Then he bored
straight for the jugular.

It was at this crisis that he sensed, rather than saw, the other man
rushing at him. Chum left his fallen antagonist and whirled about to
face the new enemy