this did they now , but even as they leapt out upon him huan sprang up into the air with a mighty baying , and his jaws closed in the back close to the neck of that cat oikeroi , and oikeroi died ; but the other thane fled howling up a great tree , and so was tevildo left alone face to face with huan , and such an encounter was not much to his mind , yet was huan upon him too swiftly for flight , and they fought fiercely in that glade , and the noise that tevildo made was very hideous ; but at length huan had him by the throat , and that cat might well have perished had not his claws as he struck out blindly pierced huan 's eye .