Part 24 (2/2)

Lad was co less acutely Here, too, were grateful darkness, after the torrid glare of the fire, and cold water and security Here were alsocreatures to watch It would have been pleasant to go home at once But, since that was out of the question, there were far worse things than to lie interestedly at ease until the Master should co the base of the bare rocky knoll; and, finding no path of advance, turned back on itself, fire-fashi+on; seeking new outlet The thin line of bushes and other undergrowth at the hillock's foot were quickly consu only a broad bed of eration swept on to the left, over the only course open to it To the right, the etation were sufficient ”No Thoroughfare” enforceon track clear, up to the there it bore to leftward at the base of the knoll And the Mistress and the Master were able to guide their rattlingly protesting car in safety up the trail from the main road far below The set of the wind prevented the blinded or confused by s of the eyes and a recurrent series of heat waves, they reat discoht them to an abrupt halt at the spot where the wide swath of red coals and fla of the hillock foot bushes

The Master ju the lurid stretch of ash and e merrily It was not a safe barrier to cross; this twenty-foot-wide fiery stretch Nor, for many rods in either direction, was there any way around it

”There's one coan to explore for an opening in the red scarf of coals, ”the fire hasn't gotten up to the camp-site He--”

”But the s vainly through the hazecurtain toward the summit ”And so has the heat If only--”

She broke off, with a catch in her sweet voice And, scarce realizing what she did, she put the silver whistle to her lips and blew a piercingly loud blast

”What's that for?” asked the Master, crankily, worry over his beloved doghis nerves raw ”If Lad's alive, he's fastened there You say you saw hi He can't come, when he hears that whistle There's no sense in--How in blue blazes he ever got fastened there,--if he really was,--is ed the Mistress, breaking in on his gruue

”Listen!”

Out of the darkness, beyond the knoll-top, ca welcome-bark which Lad reserved for the Mistress and the Master, alone; on their return froaily, defiantly; again and again; ringing out above the obscene hiss and crackle and roar of the forest-fire And at every repetition, it was nearer and nearer the dumfounded listeners at the knoll foot

”It's--it's Laddie!” cried the Mistress, in wondering rapture ”Oh, it's LADDIE!”

The Master, hearing the glad racket, did a thoroughly asinine thing

Drawing in his breath and holding his coat in front of hih the wide smear of embers, to the hilltop; where, presumably, Lad was still tied But, before he could take the first step, the Mistress stayed hi to the hither side of the knoll; lividly bright in the e at breakneck speed a great, tawny shape

Barking rapturously,--even as he had barked when first the whistle's blast had roused him fro toward the two humans atched so incredulously his wild approach

The Master, belatedly, saw that the collie could not avoid crashi+ng into the spread of embers; and he opened his mouth to order Lad back

But there was not ti took no heed of even the simplest caution His lost and adored deities had called hi him That was all Lad knew or cared They had coil and loneliness and his deadly peril were ended

Too insanely happy to note where he was treading, he sprang into the very center of the belt of s coals His tiny white forefeet--drenched with icy water--did not reh to feel pain In twoin crazy excite at the hands; ”talking” in a dozen different keys of rapture, his whi-pent-up emotions

His coat and his feet had, for hours, been ih the embers at express-train speed Scarce a blister e But Lad would not have cared for all the blisters and burns on earth His dear Gods had come back to him,--even as he had known they would!

Once more,--and for the thousandth ti else ; New Tricks

Anew tricks”

Some proverbs live because they are too true to die Others endure because they have a s sound and because nobody has bothered to bury theories

In a sense it is true In another it is not

To teach the average elderly dog to sit up and beg, or to roll over twice, or to do other of the asinine things hich huood sense of their canine chuer to become a musical composer