for his life; and even in the hurry and excitement of the moment the boy felt a thrill of admiration for the lithe, steel-sinewed beast that could make such a fight against such odds, and for the wild, fierce spirit that would not give up so long as breath remained in the body that incased it.
But that breath was growing shorter. The big Airedale had his grip now. His great jaws were clamped upon the lynx's throat just where it left the chest, clamped with a vicelike grip which all the mad struggles of his enemy, heaving and writhing underneath him, could not shake loose; and the boy knew that they would remain fastened there till life went out of the lynx or till the dog, now streaming with blood from his lacerated under parts, was disemboweled.
The boy feared the latter ending. Abandoning his efforts to seize the elusive leash and disregarding the danger of injury to himself, he jumped close in and managed at last to get his hand under the Airedale's collar. Then, straining and stumbling, putting all his strength into the effort, he finally succeeded in pulling the dog clear. As the long, square jaws lost their hold the lynx, which had been lifted a little from the ground, fell back limp and helpless and lay still.
The boy tied the struggling dog to a sapling twenty feet away and left him there plunging and
