The Mountain Girl by Emma Payne Erskine Chapter 4 Page 14

To drop down there would mean instant death on the rocks below. It would be terrible — almost as horrible as the strangling rope. He would wait until they were on him, and then — nearer and nearer came the erratic trotting and scratching of the dog among the leaves — and then, if only he could grapple with the man who had struck his little brother, he would drag him over with him. A look of fierce joy leaped in his eyes, which were drawn to a narrow blue gleam as he waited.

Suddenly Nig burst through the undergrowth and sprang to his side, but before the dog could give his first bark of delight the yelp was crushed in his throat, and he was hurled with the mighty force of frenzy, a black, writhing streak of animate nature into the rushing water, and there swept down, tossed on the rocks, taken up and