The bit of darkness detached itself from the rest of the shrubbery, as Milo lounged past, and it sprang, catlike, at the unsuspecting man's back.
Into the path of light it leaped.

In the same atom of time, Gavin Brice shouted aloud in sharp warning, and dashed forward, the collie at his side.
But he was fifty feet away.

And his shout served only to make Standish halt, staring about him.
It was then that the creature from the shrubbery made his spring.

He struck venomously at Standish, from behind.

And Gavin could see, in the striking hand, a glitter of steel.
Standish--warned perhaps by sound, perhaps by instinct--wheeled half-way around.