rubbing their arms, which probably ached from the strain of carrying
her. Beyond a doubt they were armed. He tried to think, to plan; but
in the midst of it all half-formulated schemes deserted him because of
the sudden action of one of them.

He had taken something from his pocket, and now he and another stooped
over the prostrate figure of the girl. One man grasped her head in
both hands; the next instant Hiram realized with horror that a blade
was gleaming dully through the rain in the right hand of the other man.
The third stooped and squatted on Jo's ankles.

Hiram Hooker had at least one more accomplishment than has been
mentioned. As a boy he had used it to terrify his elders on dark
nights in the forest. He could imitate the piercing, blood-chilling
scream of the prowling panther until women in lonely forest cabins
clutched their breasts in fear, and men's faces blanched. Sprinting
from his place of concealment like a football player, crouching low as
he ran, he bore down upon the three men, and had almost reached them
before he loosed that terrorizing cry. Before it had died out in the
lonely, dripping wilderness, he was flailing right and left with a huge
pine knot in either hand, amazing and invincible as Sampson with his
jawbone of an ass.

With yells of terror, the trio rocked back on their haunches and
struggled frantically to gain their feet. There was a sickening crack,
and the man who had held Jo's head pitched backward, a victim of one of
Hiram's warclubs. Swinging about, he aimed a blow with his left-hand
club, but its intended target ducked, and the club descended on the
man's shoulder, wringing a cry of pain from lips that whitened suddenly.

The third man was up now, and sprang upon Hiram's back. The other
charged him from in front. Hiram hurled his left-hand club straight
into this man's face, and with his free hand reached down and grasped
the left leg of the man who had climbed him in the rear. Carrying this
man, who all the time was raining blows on his head, Hiram ran with all
his might for a close-by pine. As he neared it he whirled about and
threw himself at it backward with every atom of his force.

There followed a terrible impact, and in his ear exploded the breath of
the man on his back, as he came in violent contact with the trunk of
the tree. The shock pitched Hiram forward on his face, and the man who
had climbed upon him fell limply to the earth, the wind entirely