shackles of restraint from Jack, who, with a springy trot, went forward
slowly, as though he were making up a definite plan of action; for Jack
had a fighting way of his own, which Chad knew.

"Sick him, Whizzer!" shouted the tall boy, and the group of five
hurried eagerly down the hill and halted in a half circle about Jack
and Chad; so that it looked an uneven conflict, indeed, for the two
waifs from over Pine Mountain.

The strange dog was game and wasted no time. With a bound he caught
Jack by the throat, tossed him several feet away, and sprang for him
again. Jack seemed helpless against such strength and fury, but Chad's
face was as placid as though it had been Jack who was playing the
winning game.

Jack himself seemed little disturbed; he took his punishment without an
outcry of rage or pain. You would have thought he had quietly come to
the conclusion that all he could hope to do was to stand the strain
until his opponent had worn himself out. But that was not Jack's game,
and Chad knew it. The tall boy was chuckling, and his brother of Chad's
age was bent almost double with delight.

"Kill my dawg, will he?" he cried, shrilly.

"Oh, Lawdy!" groaned the tall one.

Jack was much bitten and chewed by this time, and, while his pluck and
purpose seemed unchanged, Chad had risen to his feet and was beginning
to look anxious. The three silent spectators behind pressed forward
and, for the first time, one of these--the tallest of the group--spoke:

"Take yo' dawg off, Daws Dillon," he said, with quiet authority; but
Daws shook his head, and the little brother looked indignant.

"He said he'd kill him," said Daws, tauntingly.

"Yo' dawg's bigger and hit ain't fair," said the other again and,
seeing Chad's worried look, he pressed suddenly forward; but Chad had
begun to smile, and was sitting down on his stone again. Jack had
leaped this time, with his first growl during the fight, and Whizzer
gave a sharp cry of surprise and pain. Jack had caught him by the
throat, close behind the jaws, and the big dog shook and growled and
shook again. Sometimes Jack was lifted quite from the ground, but he
seemed clamped to his enemy to stay. Indeed he shut his eyes, finally,
and seemed to go quite to sleep. The big dog threshed madly and swung
and twisted, howling with increasing pain and terror and increasing
weakness, while Jack's face was as peaceful as though he were a puppy
once more and hanging to his mother's nec