“He’s my property,” he protested.  “And he’s worth a hundred sick monkeys and sour-balled terriers.  Anyway, we’ll get them out all right.  Give me a chance.—­Somebody mop my eyes out, please.  I can’t see.  I’ve used up my blank cartridges.  Has anybody any blanks?”

One moment Sara would interpose her body between Michael and the leopard, which was still being delayed by the prodding irons; and the next moment she would turn to screech at the fanged cat is if by very advertisement of her malignancy she might intimidate him into keeping back.

Michael, dragging her with him, growling and bristling, staggered forward a couple of three-legged steps, gave at the ruined shoulder, and collapsed.  And then Sara did the great deed.  With one last scream of utmost fury, she sprang full into the face of the monstrous cat, tearing and scratching with hands and feet, her mouth buried into the roots of one of its stubby ears.  The astounded leopard upreared, with his forepaws striking and ripping at the little demon that would not let go.

The fight and the life in the little green monkey lasted a short ten seconds.  But this was sufficient for Collins to get the door ajar and with a quick clutch on Michael’s hind-leg jerk him out and to the ground.

CHAPTER XXX

No rough-and-ready surgery of the Del Mar sort obtained at Cedarwild, else Michael would not have lived.  A real surgeon, skilful and audacious, came very close to vivisecting him as he radically repaired the ruin of a shoulder, doing things he would not have dared with a human but which proved to be correct for Michael.

“He’ll always be lame,” the surgeon said, wiping his hands and gazing down at Michael, who lay, for the most part of him, a motionless prisoner set in plaster of Paris.  “All the healing, and there’s plenty of it, will have to be by first intention.  If his temperature shoots up we’ll have to put him out of his misery.  What’s he worth?”

“He has no tricks,” Collins answered.  “Possibly fifty dollars, and certainly not that now.  Lame dogs are not worth teaching tricks to.”

Time was to prove both men wrong.  Michael was not destined to permanent lameness, although in after-years his shoulder was always tender, and, on occasion, when the weather was damp, he was compelled to ease it with a slight limp.  On the other hand, he was destined to appreciate to a great price and to become the star performer Harry Del Mar had predicted of him.

In the meantime he lay for many weary days in the plaster and abstained from raising a dangerous temperature.  The care taken of him was excellent.  But not out of love and affection was it given.  It was merely a part of the system at Cedarwild which made the institution such a success.  When he was taken out of the plaster, he was still denied that instinctive pleasure which all animals take in licking their wounds, for shrewdly arranged bandages were wrapped and buckled on him.  And when they were finally removed, there were no wounds to lick; though deep in the shoulder was a pain that required months in which to die out.