dly sort, at that, from which there would be no
escaping.

In one sense the Wolfhound's great height was against him now,
since it placed Lupus in a more favourable position for securing
the underhold upon which he was intent. But, as against that, it
gave Finn readier access to the hold which in all his fights
hitherto he had made fatal: the hold which a terrier takes upon a
rat. But Lupus was no rat, and Finn had already found more than
once that even his mighty jaws were not powerful enough to give
killing pressure through all the mass of harsh bristles and thick
rolling skin and flesh which protected Lupus's spinal cord at the
neck. Three times during the later stages of the fight Lupus
managed to ward off attack with a lightning stroke of one
fore-foot, the claws of which scored deep into Finn's muzzle and
neck, in one case opening a lesser vein, and sending the red blood
rushing over his iron-grey coat. It seemed the long claws of the
wolf-dingo were almost more deadly than his snapping jaws.

The flow of his own blood seemed to madden Finn, and he made a
plunge for his enemy's neck. Lupus sat erect, and, like a boxer, or
a big bear, warded off the plunge with a violent, sweeping blow of
his right paw. There was a quick flash of bloody, foam-flecked
fangs, and the deadly paw was crushed between Finn's jaws. The pain
of the crushing drew a screeching howl from Lupus, and in that same
instant a powerful upward twist of Finn's neck threw him fairly on
his back, snarling despairingly. One could not measure the fraction
of time which elapsed between Finn's release of the crushed foot
and his seizure of the throat--the deadly underhold. The
wolf-dingo's bristles were thin there, and the skin comparatively
soft. The fight was for life, and it was the whole of the Wolfhound's
great strength that he put into his grip. Lupus's entire frame,
every inch of it, writhed and twisted convulsively, like the body
of a huge cat in torment. Finn's fangs sank half an inch deeper.
The wolf-dingo's claws tore impotently at space, and his body
squirmed almost into a ball. Finn's fangs sank half an inch deeper,
and hot blood gushed between them. Lupus's great body hunched
itself into an almost erect position from the shoulder-blades; he
was standing on his shoulders. Then, as in a convulsion, one of his
hind-legs was lowered in order that it might saw upward, scoring
three deep furrows down the side of the Wolfhound's neck. Finn's
fan