The instep of his foot caught Michael squarely under the chest, half knocking the breath out of him and wholly lifting him into the air, so that he fell heavily on his side.

The two terriers were upon him, filling their mouths with his straight, wiry hair as they sank their teeth in.

Still on his side, as he was beginning to struggle to his feet, he clipped his jaws together on a leg of one, who screamed with pain and retreated on three legs, holding up the fourth, a fore leg, the bone of which Michael's teeth had all but crushed.
Twice Michael slashed the other four-footed foe and then pursued him in a circle with Captain Duncan pursuing him in turn.

Shortening the distance by leaping across a chord of the arc of the other's flight, Michael closed his jaws on the back and side of the neck.

Such abrupt arrest in mid-flight by the heavier dog brought the fox-terrier down on deck with, a heavy thump.