He handled his prize none too gently, and his management was calling forth all the collie's resentment.

But as the man had had the wit to seize the dog by the scruff of the neck and to keep himself out of the reach of the luckless creature's vainly snapping jaws, these protests went for nothing.
Within thirty feet of the boat, the dog braced himself for a new effort to tear free.

The man, in anger, planted a vigorous kick against the collie's furry side.

As his foot was bare, the kick lost much of its potential power to injure.
Yet it had the effect of rousing to sudden indignation the dusty youth who had stopped on his tramp from Miami to watch the scene.
"Whose dog is that ?" he demanded, striding forward, from the shade, and approaching the struggling pair.
"Who the blue blazes are you ?" countered the barefoot man, his eyes running contemptuously over the shabby and slight-built figure.
"My name is Brice," said the other.

"Gavin Brice.