The Billiken's Bluff

The danger was extreme.




Those dogs that were so cowed and obsequious in the daylight hours




formed themselves into vicious, feral packs at night. Their agression and ferocity was legendary in all slums throughout the city, and inspired great fear.




The bravest of the hounds inched closer and closer.



They came in groups of two and three.



They attacked from two sides at once.



The dogs were insane with the blood lust.







Abdullah swung it two-handed as if it was a sword. But it wasn't the superior weapon or even his uncanny agility that terrified the dogs and drove them back.



What routed them in panicked flight was that he'd taken the fight to them;






that he'd attacked,



where we'd defended; that he was sure of winning, where we'd merely struggled to survive.



It was over quickly.



There was silence, where so much sound had screamed.



[...]

Then they ... they said he took two guns from his jacket and begun to shoot at them.



They returned the fire all at once. He was shot so many times.