Part 23 (1/2)

Froallop, on sound of this whistle Its notes could travel, through still air, for a halfin eager response But tonight, a dozen wait-punctuated blasts brought no other response than to set the distant village dogs to barking

The Mistress went back into the house, genuinely worried Acting on a sudden idea, she called up the Place's superintendent, at the gatelodge

”You were down here when the truck came to the house this afternoon, weren't you?” she asked

”Yes,for it Mike and I helped Simmons to unload”

”Did you see which way Lad went, when he jumped out of the truck?”

pursued the Mistress ”Or have any of you seen him since then?”

”Why, no, ma'am,” came the puzzled answer ”I haven't seen him at all

I supposed he was in the car with you, and that maybe he'd been in the house ever since He wasn't on the truck: That's one sure thing I saw it stop; and I stayed till they finished e it Lad wasn't there”

There was a htly muffled, she said:

”Please find out if there is plenty of gas in h to take it--say, forty an the Master, as his wife left the telephone and picked up an ulster

”Laddie didn't come home on the truck,” she made tremulous reply ”And he wasn't with us He hasn't coh,” returned the Master, albeit with no great assurance ”Lad's found his way farther than that He--”

”If he was going to find his way,” interrupted the Mistress, ”he'd have found it before now I know Laddie So do you He is up there And he can't get back He--”

”Nonsense!” laughed the Master ”Why, of course, he--”

”He is up there,” insisted the Mistress, ”and he can't get back I know hih to be, sure he'd have overtaken us, e stopped all those times to fix the tires;--if he had been left behind And I know so else: When we started on, after that first puncture, ere about half a mile below the knoll And as ent around the bend, there was a gap in the trees I was looking back For a second, I could see the lean-to, outlined ever so clearly against the sky And alongside of it was standing soht so suddenly, that I couldn't see what it was; except that it was large and dark And it see to speak to you about it,--I supposed it was that black bear of Laddie's,--e had the next puncture And that et all about it;--till now Of course, it never occurred to me it could be Lad Because Barret had said he was in the truck But--but oh, it WAS Laddie! He--he was fastened, or caught, in sole to--”

”Co into his mackinaw ”Unless you'll stay here, while I--”

”No,” she protested ”I' that's troubling you I' of those forest fires and of what you said about the wind changing and--”

”Coe

Which sho maudlinly foolish two otherwise sane people can be; when they are lucky enough to own such a dog as Sunnybank Lad

Naturally, the right course, at so cold and late an hour of the autu and unpacking, was to go to bed; and to trust to luck that the wise old collie would find his way back again Instead, the two set off on a twenty- hearts It did not occur to either of the, frosty drive in search of the

Lad had watched the preparations for departure with increasing worry

Also, the abnormally sensitive old felloretchedly unhappy

Except at dog-shows, he had never before been tied up And at such shows, the Mistress and the Master were always on hand to pet and reassure him Yet, here, he had suffered hi post of a lean-to, by a coround below the hillock, his deities lance at him