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She came none too soon. One dog rolled before him, well-nigh slashed in
half; but a second had him by the thigh, a third gripped his collar
behind, and a fourth had the blade of the sword between its teeth,
tasting its own blood. He parried the leap of a fifth with his left arm.
It might have been the first century instead of the twenty-second, so
far as she was concerned. All the gentleness of her eighteen years of
city life vanished before this primordial need. The spade smote hard and
sure, and cleft a dog's skull. Another, crouching for a spring, yelped
with dismay at this unexpected antagonist, and rushed aside. Two wasted
precious moments on the binding of a feminine skirt.
The collar of Denton's cloak tore and parted as he staggered back; and
that dog too felt the spade, and ceased to trouble him. He sheathed his
sword in the brute at his thigh.
"
To the wall!" cried Elizabeth; and in three seconds the fight was at an
end, and our young people stood side by side, while a remnant of five
dogs, with ears and tails of disaster, fled shamefully from the stricken
field.
For a moment they stood panting and victorious, and then Elizabeth,
dropping her spade, covered her face, and sank to the ground in a
paroxysm of weeping. Denton looked about him, thrust the point of his
sword into the ground so that it was at hand, and stooped to comfort
her.
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