Part 12 (2/2)
It was a pretty bit of theft; and it betokened long and careful practice Thus,--from the thief's standpoint,--it was almost a pity the brilliant effort asted For wasted it was
This young negro prided hi his trade And, today, though he proceeded to excel in the first of these qualities, he disgraced hiarded the second
For he jerked his hand out of the tonneau far faster than he had thrust it in As he did so, he woke the echoes with the s could co, so viselike and relentless had fastened upon those sa the flesh of the lower hand
Lad, in rising to his feet, after his pleasant nap, at the slowing of the car, had been aware of that predatory hand; as it groped for the bag Now, fro in the car as under his own careful guardianshi+p Hence, he lunged forward and sank his terrible white teeth deep into the groping fingers
By main force the youth tore free With a second screech, he reeled back from the unseen peril which had assailed him But Lad would not have it so
There was a harsh-breathed growl, froiant shape ca over the top of the shut door and hurled itself upon the staggering negro
The Master, turning at sound of the yell, was just in time to see the attack The collie,--supposedly ninetythrough the air and crashi+ng against the chest of a gray-faced and pop-eyed young negro To earth went the two; in a cloud of dust; a second before the Master's sharp call brought Lad reluctantly away from his prey, and just as a police up
The thief did not wait to explain No sooner did he see the Master catch the infuriated dog by the ruff than he scrambled to his feet; ducked under the police better than record time Somehow, the encounter had deprived hiround and to explain that he had e His only desire, just then, was to put as many thousand miles as possible between himself and the tawny deasped the Mistress, unbelieving, as the policeitive ”LADDIE! What in the world--?”
”He--he abbled the Master, brilliantly ”He must have jumped in, while ere at breakfast See, he's cleared a space for his He's been there, all the tiested the Mistress, ”we'd be looking now for one or two pieces of luggage that had disappeared When the Grays went through here, one of their suitcases was--”
”But what in blazes are we going to do with him?” broke in the Master, worriedly ”We can't take hi hi and be kept there for days, without food or water Besides, they won't let a dog go by express unless he's in a crate What are we to do?”
”Why,” said the Mistress, stooping to stroke the silken head that rested against her knee, ”Why, Laddie see He's surely paid his way We'll have to take hilad to see hilad to see Laddie, wherever we go Let's take hi to do We can explain to them how it happened”
And so, after s had a way of being settled when the Mistress proposed them
Three hours later, the car stopped before the entrance of a roomily beautiful house in a roomily beautiful residence park, in the upper Catskills
The welco smiles on the faces of host and hostess suffered sudden eclipse; as a huge any-and-white collie stepped uests
”This is Lad,” introduced the Mistress ”I hope you don'thim I can promise he won't be a bit of trouble to anybody We didn'thim It just happened This was the way:--”
While she was recounting the adventure to Mrs Harmon, their host drew the Master to one side
”Say, old an Harmon, with visible disco But I'm a little bothered about just what to do This is the idea: There was a ht Park, lastit Then, a day or so later, a Persian cat had fits and chased old Mrs Cratchitt across a lawn and gave her a spell of palpitation of the heart And the next day an Angora goat that the Varian children had as a pet got loose and chewed up several hundred dollars' worth of lingerie off a line Then the Clives' spaniel took to barking under Rutherford Garretse's studyAnd--”
”You needn't be afraid of Lad's doing any of those fool things,”