The overgrown brutes were so much taken aback at the change of front on the part of the young fellow whom they had hoped to run down like a scared rabbit, that they stopped short in sheer surprise.

But this was only for a moment.  Then the leader of the three rushed forward, with a large club.  He carried it high in the air in the same indiscreet manner in which Pretty had once attacked the Senior.

Just before the tramp and the boy came to close quarters Pretty made a diving sidelong dodge, and as the tramp’s club whisked idly through the air past him, he dealt the fellow a furious blow across the left shin.  Now, as any one who was ever struck there knows, a man’s shin is as tender as a bear’s nose; and the surprised tramp was soon dancing about in the air, hugging his bruised leg and yowling like a wildcat.  But Pretty had run on past, leaving him to his misery.

Now he came up to the other two, who moved in single file toward him.  The first man Pretty received right upon the point of his cane, driving the hard metal ferrule straight at the man’s solar plexus.  The combination of the man’s rush and Pretty’s powerful thrust was enough to lay the wretch upon the ground, writhing and almost unconscious.

For the last thug Pretty had prepared a beautiful back-handed slash across the face; but the villain, seeing what was in store for him, dropped down, and rushed at the boy low enough to evade the stick.  Pretty, however, had a check for this move also, and a quick step to one side saved him from the man’s clutch.

Now he recovered himself quickly enough to deliver a vicious whack straight at the back of the man’s head—­a blow that would have settled the tramp’s mind for some time to come, but the fellow was running so fast that Pretty missed his aim, and his stout weapon only dealt a stinging blow upon the man’s left shoulder.

The thug ran on far enough to gain a good vantage-ground, and then, whirling, came at Pretty again.  Now his uplifted hand held an ugly knife.

The look of this was not pleasant to Pretty’s eyes; but the excitement of the situation was much increased when a glance out of the side of his eye showed him that the first thug had regained enough nerve to come limping forward in the endeavor to throttle him.

The men were not coming at him in such a way that he could use the “point-and-butt thrust” that he had learned for such occasions, so he decided instantly to repeat upon the first thug the shin-shattering blow that had been so successful before.

As the man came on, then, Pretty gave a terrific backward slash that caught the tramp’s uninjured shin.  It was a beauteous shot, and sent the fellow to his hunkers, actually boohooing with agony.

And now, with another fine long sweep, this time upward, Pretty sent a smashing blow at the third tramp’s upraised arm.  The force of the stroke was alone strong enough to send the knife flying; but, by the addition of a bit of good luck, Pretty caught the wretch on his crazy bone, and set him to such a caterwauling as cats sing of midnights on a back-yard fence.