So, as usual in new crises, Lad proceeded to make his own Law and to put it into effect.
A deft turn of the head eluded Eitel's snatching hand.

With the lightness of a feather, Lad deposited the bundle in the soft dust of the road.

In practically, the same gesture, the dog's curving eye-tooth slashed Eitel's outstretched wrist to the bone.
Then, staggering under a second head-blow from Roodie, the collie wheeled with lightning-swift fury upon this more hostile of his two assailants.
Hurling himself at the man's throat, in silent ferocity, he well-nigh turned the nocturnal battle into a killing.

But Roodie's left arm, by instinct, flew up to guard his threatened jugular.
Through coat and shirt and skin and flesh,--as in the case of Lady's slayer,--the great dog's teeth clove their way; their rending snap checked only by the bone of the forearm.

The impetus of his eighty-pound body sent the man clean off his balance.