Miki, a moment before bubbling over with friendship and good cheer, was on his back in an instant, his grotesque legs paddling the air and his yelping cries for help rising in a wild clamour that filled the golden stillness of the evening with an unutterable woe.
Challoner stood dumbfounded.

In another moment he would have separated the little fighters, but something happened that stopped him.

Neewa, standing squarely over Miki, with Miki's four over-grown paws held aloft as if signalling an unqualified surrender, slowly drew his teeth from the pup's loose hide.

Again he saw the man-beast.

Instinct, keener than a clumsy reasoning, held him for a few moments without movement, his beady eyes on Challoner.