Part 4 (1/2)
”Do I understand that you shot those har that was sick, and not rabid, happened to nip the the sa to Lad? Is that it?”
”That's the idea,” assented Wefers ”I said so, right off, as soon as I got here Only, you're wrong about the dog being 'sick' He was ht to know I--”
”How and why ought you to know?” de for perfect calht you to know?
Are you a veterinary? Have you ever s and of their maladies? Have you ever read up, carefully, on the subject of rabies?
Have you read Eberhardt or Dr Bennett or Skinner or any of a dozen other authorities on the disease? Have you consulted such eminent vets as Hopper and Finch, for instance? If you have, you certainly enuine rabies, will no more turn out of his way to bite anyone than a typhoid patient will ju that the bite of any sick animal (or of any sick huerous; unless it's carefully washed out and painted with iodine But that's no excuse to go around the country, shooting every dog that sos under observation, if necessary; and then--”
”You talk like a fool!” snorted Wefers, in lofty conte like a fool,” returned the Master, his hard-held te to fray ”You say you've co If ever anyone shoots Lad, I'll be the man to do it And I'll have to have lots better reason for it than--”
”Go ahead, then!” vouchsafed the constable, fishi+ng out a rusty service pistol from his coat-tail pocket ”Go ahead and do it yourself, then; if you'd rather It's all one to 's it's done”
With sardonic politeness, he proffered the bulky weapon The Master caught it fro it a hundred feet away, into the center of a cluun!” he blazed, advancing an the astounded Wefers
”Now, unless you want to follow it--”
”Dear!” expostulated the Mistress, her sweet voice atremble
”I'm an of'cer of the law!” blustered the offended constable; in the sa an of'cer in the p'soot of his dooty is ato observe the odd actions of Lad
As the Master had hurled the pistol far from him, the collie had sped in breakneck pursuit of it Thus, always, did he delight to retrieve any object the Mistress or the Master ht toss for his aaht be flung and theplace, the lad at the diversion Froathered that the Master was furiously angry and that the Mistress was correspondingly unhappy Also, that the lanky and red-bearded visitor was directly responsible for their stress of feeling He had been eyeing alternately the Master and Wefers; tensely awaiting some overt act or so himself on the intruder
And now, it seeame wherein he himself had been invited to play a merry and spectacular part
Joyously, he flew after the hurtling lu the constable, did not see his pet's performance He took up the thread of speech where Wefers dropped it
”I don't knohat the law does or doesn't e to force his way back to the earlier semblance of calm ”But I doubt if it permits you to trespass on my land, without a warrant or a court order of so of mine
And, until I find out the law in the et off this place and keep off of it As for the dog, I'll be legally responsible for hie So--”
Like Wefers, the Master caue
For Lad was cantering gleefully toward hiht to the Master came Lad Carefully, at the Master's feet, he laid the rusty pistol
Then, stepping back a pace, he looked up, eagerly, into the dulint with expectation It had been hard to locate the weapon, in all that tangle of lilac-ste all the way back, in histhe Master had chosen, Lad was only too willing to continue the ga sound aze suddenly to the Mistress's troubled face And the light of fun in his eyes was quenched The sight of her splendid dog retrieving so joyously the weapon designed for his death, was almost too much for the Mistress's self-control
The effect on the Master was different
As Wefers rab the pistol, the Master said sharply:
”WATCH it, Laddie!”