Part 3 (1/2)

Out from a door-yard, flashed a bumptious little fox terrier Into the roadway he bounded; intent on challenging the bigger animal

He barked ferociously; then danced in front of the invalid; yapping and snapping up at the hanging head The big ly dancing torly into the terrier's withers; and, with an i the little beast to one side Then he continued his interrupted flight; sick wrath beginning to enco brain, at the annoyance he had encountered

The yell of the slightly hurt terrier brought people to their doors

The sound disturbed a half-breed spaniel from his doze in the dust, and sent hi his injured terrier chu at the plodding forepaws

The ht some painfully sick human who is pestered when he asks only to be let alone His dull apathy gave place to sullen anger He bit growlingly at the spaniel, throwing himself to one side in pursuit of the elusive foe And he snapped with equal rage at an Irish terrier that had come out to add to the tur up and down inside their door-yard fences, squalling ”Mad dog!” and flinging at the black brute any missile they could lay hand to

A broken flower-pot cut the invalid's nose A stone rebounded from his ribs The raucous hu had started Froed into a peril

The Mistress had motored over to the Hampton post-office, that afternoon, to one with her She had left him in the car, while she went into the post-office

Lad lay there, in snug content the return of his deity and keeping a watchful eye on anyone who chanced to loiter near theout, from one side of the seat, he stared down the hot roadway, in a direction whence a babel of highly exciting sounds began to issue

Apparently, beyond that kick-up of dust, a furlong below, all sorts of interesting things were happening Lad's soft eyes took on a glint of eager curiosity; and he sniffed the still air for further clues as to the nature of the fun A nu and screae part of their clas mixed up in the fracas; and more than one of them had blood on hi told him

Lad whiuard this car It was his duty to stay where he was, until the Mistress should return Yet, right behind his were happening,--things that he longed to investigate and to , when so much of wild interest was astir! Not once did it occur to Laddie to desert his post But he could not forbear that lohilance of appeal toward the post-office

And now, out of the santic, terrible It was coht toward the car; still al men

And a shot was fired So the chase The same somebody, in the van of the pursuers, had opened fire; and was in danger of doing far s

Just then, out fro the narrow sidewalk, she neared the car Lad stood up, wagging his plu of eagerness on the leather seat-cushi+on

On reeled the black ht a flash of the Mistress's white dress, on the walk, fifteen feet in front of him and a yard or more to one side

In a frame of rel resolved to er, fro full at her

The Mistress paused, for an instant, in the middle of the sidewalk, to find out the reason for the sudden din that had assailed her ears as she eht the !” and saw the black brute charging down upon her

There was no tiain the lesser safety of the car For the charging rel was not five feet away

The Mistress stood stock-still; holding her hands at a level with her throat She did not cry out; nor faint That was not the Mistress's way Like Lad, she was thoroughbred in soul as well as in body And neither she nor her dog belonged to the breed of screah her mind, in that briefest fraction of a second whizzed the consoling thought:

”He's notnever swerves from his path”

But if the Mistress re her peril evendive from his perch on the car seat

He did not leap at random Lad's brain alorked ly rapid as were that body's n wasbeast swooped a furry ind of burnishedspeed and unerring aiht srel, obliquely, on the left shoulder; knocking the great brute's legs fro him cos; Lad on top Before they struck ground, the collie's teeth had found their goal ire the side of the larger dog's throat; and every whalebone muscle in Lad's body was braced to hold his enemy down

It was a clever hold For the fall had thrown theas Lad should be able to keep the great foaet his feet under his in their present position, he had no power to get up; but lay thrashi+ng and snapping and snarling; and trying with all his crarip that held hi like two seconds Up stormed the crowd; the pistol-wielder at its head Three shots were fired at point-blank range By soh one bullet scratched his foreleg on its way to the black giant's brain