"I've got nothing to do with your sick mother," said Tarbox. "That was no reason for coming across my field." "I didn't hurt anything, sir; I just walked along the path." "I'll larn you not to try it again, Jim Benton; I'm goin' to give you as good a floggin' as ever you had. You can just tell the other boys how it feels and mebbe they'll want to try it." "Oh, please don't whip me! I ought to be goin' for a doctor. My mother may die." "She can die for all I care," said the brutal Tarbox. "Now I've got you tied, and I'm goin' to give your jacket a good warmin'." He raised the whip and was about to bring it down upon the shrinking limbs of the poor boy, when he was startled by a deep, stern voice only a rod behind him, "Don't touch that boy!" Tarbox looked back and saw Anak striding towards him. He had not seen him before, but he knew who he was, for he had seen the posters of the circus. Though rather startled, he was not disposed to yield his victim easily. "Get out of my field!" he snarled; "you're trespassin'." "I can't help it," said Anak; "I'm not going to see a brute like you whip a poor child while I am here to defend him." "You ain't, hey?" snarled Tarbox. "I've got the law on my side, and I'm goin' to do it. Just you clear out, you two, or I'll have the law on you." He raised the whip, but did not get a chance to use it. Anak reached him in one stride, snatched the whip from his hand and flung it into the road; then, grasping the stalwart farmer by the collar, shook him till his teeth chattered, with as much ease as Tarbox himself would have handled the twelve-year-old boy. "Perhaps you'll change your opinion now?" he said. Tarbox was astonished and cowed. There wasn't a man in town that could cope with him, yet he was but a child in the hands of the Norwegian giant. "I'll have the law of you!" he shrieked in furious anger. "So you may, but first you've got to untie that boy." "I won't!" "You won't, hey?" Again Anak seized him, and shook him vigorously in spite of his struggles. When he let him go, Tarbox, with an evil look, called, "Here, Bruiser! come here, sir." A large, wicked-looking bull-dog bounded over a stone wall, and rushed forward evidently bent on mischief. "Sik him!" he exclaimed, pointing to Anak. "Is your dog's life insured?" asked Anak, calmly. He waited till the dog was within a foot or two, aiming to attack his leg; then he raised one of his powerful feet, aimed a tremendous kick at Bruiser, and the dog was stretched senseless at his feet. "It's your own fault," said Anak, turning to the farmer; "your dog is probably dead. Now, untie that boy." Tarbox by this time seemed thoroughly frightened. With dark, sullen looks he obeyed the giant, and Jimmy, overjoyed to recover his freedom, stretched his arms and legs. "Now, go for the doctor as fast as you please," said Anak.