pity the brilliant effort was wasted. For wasted it was.

This young negro prided himself on his powers of speed and of
silence, in plying his trade. And, today, though he proceeded to
excel in the first of these qualities, he disgraced himself most
woefully as regarded the second.

For he jerked his hand out of the tonneau far faster than he had
thrust it in. As he did so, he woke the echoes with the most
blood-curdling screech his leathern lungs could compass.

As his dusky fingers had closed on the bag, something viselike
and relentless had fastened upon those same expert fingers;
breaking two of them, and rending the flesh of the lower hand.

Lad, in rising to his feet, after his pleasant nap, at the
slowing of the car, had been aware of that predatory hand; as it
groped for the bag. Now, from puppyhood, Lad had been taught to
regard everything in the car as under his own careful
guardianship. Hence, he lunged forward and sank his terrible
white teeth deep into the groping fingers.

By main force the youth tore free. With a second screech, he
reeled back from the unseen peril which had assailed him. But Lad
would not have it so.

There was a harsh-breathed growl, from down in the tonneau; and,
on the instant, a tawny giant shape came catapulting over the top
of the shut door and hurled itself upon the staggering negro.