fangs, deep and hard, into the flesh of my shoulder. As the intense
pain shot through me, my right hand, driven with all the force I could
muster, caught the monster once, twice, full in the throat, but tighter
and tighter those clinched jaws locked, until it seemed as if every
bone between them must be ground to powder. Even as I grasped the lower
jaw, seeking vainly to wrench it loose, I heard the girl scream in
sudden afright.

"Quick!" I gasped desperately. "Get my revolver there on the floor, and
use it--but for God's sake keep down; don't let the brute see you."

She must have heard, but there was no response, although her crying
ceased. Yet my own struggle to rid myself of that crushing weight and
those iron jaws drowned all other sounds, drove all other thoughts from
me. I doubt if what I now record occupied a minute; but God protect me
from ever having to experience such another minute! I continued to
struggle in desperate hopelessness with single hand, in vain endeavor
to wrench loose that awful grip upon my shoulder. Every movement I made
was an agony, an inexpressible torture, but the very intensity of pain
kept me from faintness, as the maddened beast tore deeper and deeper
into the quivering flesh. With knee bent double beneath me I succeeded
in turning partially upon one side, lifting the entire weight of the
animal as I did so; but no degree of force I could exert would loosen
those set jaws. There was no growling, no savage snarling, no sound of
any kind,--just that fierce, desperate, silent struggle for life in the
darkness. Every muscle of my body began to weaken from the strain, my
eyes blurred, faintness swept over me, I felt my brain reeling, when
there burst a vivid flash of flame within a foot of my face, singeing
my forehead; then followed a deafening report, and the huge brute
sprang backward with a snarl of pain, his teeth clicking together like