Page:The Cross Pull.pdf/210

 Betty was gazing abstractedly away from him and so did not see him until he was quite close. Then she looked up and saw him and with a little cry she stepped into the game trail and threw herself into his arms. Flash knew that this grapple was not one of battle, no ﬁght to the death as the move would indicate. Men had queer ways. Betty and this man were friends.

As surely as Flash was an exceptional animal the two men so near him were exceptional men. Both were cool and resourceful. It would be difﬁcult to surprise either sufﬁciently to cause him for one instant to lose his presence of mind. Nevertheless, the man who watched seemed to lack his usual decisiveness. At last he rose from behind the log, his right hand dropping to the gun at his hip.

Flash rushed without a sound. The gun was half drawn when his teeth ripped the forearm from elbow to wrist and struck solidly against the base of his hand, the gun falling to the ground.

The force of the rush carried Flash clear against the log and he rolled half under the windfall. Even this sudden shock of surprise and pain was insufﬁcient to cloud Harte’s lightning brain. His