The overgrown brutes were so much taken aback at the change of front
on the part of the young fellow whom they had hoped to run down like a
scared rabbit, that they stopped short in sheer surprise.
But this was only for a moment. Then the leader of the three rushed
forward, with a large club. He carried it high in the air in the same
indiscreet manner in which Pretty had once attacked the Senior.
Just before the tramp and the boy came to close quarters Pretty made
a diving sidelong dodge, and as the tramp's club whisked idly through
the air past him, he dealt the fellow a furious blow across the left
shin. Now, as any one who was ever struck there knows, a man's shin is
as tender as a bear's nose; and the surprised tramp was soon dancing
about in the air, hugging his bruised leg and yowling like a wildcat.
But Pretty had run on past, leaving him to his misery.
Now he came up to the other two, who moved in single file toward
him. The first man Pretty received right upon the point of his cane,
driving the hard metal ferrule straight at the man's solar plexus. The
combination of the man's rush and Pretty's powerful thrust was enough
to lay the wretch upon the ground, writhing and almost unconscious.
For the last thug Pretty had prepared a beautiful back-handed slash
across the face; but the villain, seeing what was in store for him,
dropped down, and rushed at the boy low enough to evade the stick.
Pretty, however, had a check for this move also, and a quick step to
one side saved him from the man's clutch.
Now he recovered himself quickly enough to deliver a vicious whack
straight at the back of the man's head--a blow that would have settled
the tramp's mind for some time to come, but the fellow was running so
fast that Pretty missed his aim, and his stout weapon only dealt a
stinging blow upon the man's left shoulder.
The thug ran on far enough to gain a good vantage-ground, and then,
whirling, came at Pretty again. Now his uplifted hand held an ugly
knife.
The look of this was not pleasant to Pretty's eyes; but the excitement
of the situation was much increased when a glance out of the side of
his eye showed him that the first thug had regained enough nerve to
come limping forward in the endeavor to throttle him.
The men were not coming at him in such a way that he could use the
"point-and-butt thrust" that he had learned for such occasions, so he
decided instantly to repeat upon the first thug the shin-shattering
blow that had been so successful before.
As the man came on, then, Pretty gave a terrific backward slash that
caught the tramp's uninjured shin. It was a beauteous shot, and sent
the fellow to his hunkers, actually boohooing with agony.
And now, with another fine long sweep, this time upward, Pretty sent
a smashing blow at the third tramp's upraised arm. The force of the
stroke was alone strong enough to send the knife flying; but, by the
addition of a bit of good luck, Pretty caught the wretch on his crazy
bone, and set him to such a caterwauling as cats sing of midnights on
a back-yard fence.
Leaving the battered Three Graces to their different dances, Pretty
picked up the knife he had knocked from the hand of the third, and
sauntered homeward, adjusting his somewhat ruffled collar and tie as
he went, with magnificent self-possession.
On his way he met the party of rescuers sent to him by Enid, who had
managed to reach town in rapid time. Pretty calmly sent them back to
pick up the three tramps he had left; and these gentlemen were stowed
away in the Lakerim jail, where they cracked rock and thought of their
cracked bones till long after Pretty's Christmas vacation was over.
As for Enid, I will leave you to guess whether or no she thought
Pretty the greatest hero of his age,--or any age,--and whether or no
she gossiped his bravery all around Lakerim long after the Dozen were
away again in Kingston.