But not one-third of that space was covered in the lightning pounce.
From the upper air,--apparently from nowhere,--a huge shaggy body launched itself straight downward.

As unerringly as the swoop of an eagle, the down-whizzing bulk flew.

It smote the leaping wildcat, in mid-flight.
A set of mighty jaws,--jaws that could crack a beef-bone as a man cracks a filbert,--clove deep and unerringly into the cat's back, just behind the shoulders.

And those jaws flung all their strength into the ravening grip.
A squall,--hideous in its unearthly clangor,--split the night silences.
The maddened cat whirled about, spitting and yowling; and set its foaming teeth in the dog's fur-armored shoulder.

But before the terrible curved claws could be called into action, Lad's rending jaws had done their work upon the spine.
To the verge of the narrow ledge the two combatants had rolled in their unloving embrace.