s much, being long and
strong in proportion to his height and weight. The Professor was
momentarily expecting to feel Finn's great jaws about his throat,
and his two arms were crossed below his chin for protection of that
most vulnerable spot. The tiger was now furiously clawing at the
partition a few inches from Finn's nose, and emitting a series of
the most blood-curdling snarls and roars.

"Draw him off with a stick!" shouted the Professor; who, even in
his present sorry plight, was concerned most with the injury to his
pride. Sam jabbed viciously at Finn's face with a long stake,
through the bars, and as Finn withdrew slightly, the Professor
wriggled cleverly to his feet, in a crouching posture, and reached
the gate of the cage. Finn growled threateningly, but made no move
forward, being thankful to see the retreat of his enemy. In another
instant the Professor was outside the cage, and the gate securely
bolted. He was bruised, but bore no mark of scratch or bite, and so
far was able to boast; having no knowledge of the fact that Finn
had not thought of biting him, but merely of overpowering him, as a
means of evading his hot iron. This the Wolfhound had done easily.
He could have killed the man with almost equal ease, had that been
his intention.

"Well, he sure is a rustler from 'way back, Professor, every single
time," remarked the boss.

"You'll see him hop through a hoop when I say so, inside of a
week," replied the tamer, sourly, as he brushed the dust from his
coat. "As it is, you'll notice that he didn't dare to bite or
scratch. Don't you fear but what I'll tame the beauty all right,
Giant Wolf or no Giant Wolf. I've handled worse'n him."

And a couple of days before this, the younger Miss Sandbrook had
been resting her carefully dressed curls against Finn's head.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XV

THE MAKING OF A WILD BEAST

The transformation begun in Finn by the night he had spent in a
rocking train, caged between a tiger and two bears, was enormously
accentuated and confirmed by his encounter with the Professor. If
zoologists had deliberately set themselves the task of converting
an Irish Wolfhound into a wild beast, they could hardly have taken
any more effective measures than those which had been adopted by
pure chance with Finn, from the time at which he reached Sam's
hands; and it is probable that no zoologist with any humanity in
him would have made progress so extraordinarily rapid. T