At any rate
he had pluck, for I don't want to tackle such another."
"How did you manage it?" I asked.
"Dodged in beneath his sword, closed with him, threw him and smashed
him up over that lump of stone. Sheer strength, that's all. A cruel
business, but it was his life or mine, and there you are. It's lucky I
finished it in time to help you before that oven-mouthed brute tore your
throat out. Did you ever see such a dog? It looks as large as a young
donkey. Are you much hurt, Horace?"
"Oh, my forearm is chewed to a pulp, but nothing else, I think. Let us
get down to the water; if I can't drink soon I shall faint. Also the
rest of the pack is somewhere about, fifty or more of them."
"I don't think they will trouble us, they have got the horses, poor
beasts. Wait a minute and I will come."
Then he rose, found the Khan's sword, a beautiful and ancient weapon,
and with a single cut of its keen edge, killed the second dog that I
had wounded, which was still yowling and snarling at us. After this he
collected the two spears and my knife, saying that they might be useful,
and without trouble caught the Khan's horse, which stood with hanging
head close by, so tired that even this desperate fight had not
frightened it away.
"Now," he said, "up you go, old fellow. You are not fit to walk any
farther;" and with his help I climbed into the saddle.
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