I--" "Hold that measly dog's collar," he broke in.

"So! I don't care to be bitten.

I've had my share of knockabout stuff, for one day." Stooping, he picked up Brice as easily as though Gavin had been a baby, and with rough tenderness carried him toward the house.
"There are a lot of things, about all this, that I don't understand," he continued, irritably, as Claire and the still growling but tight-held Bobby followed him to the veranda.
"For instance, how that dog happens to be here and trying to protect a total stranger.

For, Bobby only got to Miami, from New Jersey, by this morning's train.

He can't possibly know this man.