Part 40 (2/2)

And then she was among them. Their noise increased in volume,--pitched in a shriller note. The sudden rush of them threw her off her feet. Some of them leaped on her. She felt a sharp, stinging nip in her wrist. In a second she was up again.

”Down!” She commanded. ”Down!”

She went toward the chow, pus.h.i.+ng the other dogs out of her way with both hands; stumbling, stepping over them as they crowded about her feet.

”Down!” She murmured breathless.

It was not until she got well within a couple of strides of the chow that the other dogs dropped away from her. It was the same thing that she had witnessed a hundred times from her window. The animals had always given China-Ching a wide berth; had always respected his magnificent, majestic aloofness. And as she reached him she fell to her knees.

”China-Ching;” she whispered brokenly. ”China-Ching!”

Her arms went around the dog's neck. Her hands stroked the thick ruff at his throat. She felt a cold nose on her cheek. A slow, deep sniffing; a second later two heavy paws were on her shoulder, and a warm, moist tongue curled again and again about her ear.

In the moonlight she looked into his eyes. The great, liquid brown eyes met hers with all their unutterable sadness.

”D'you want to go, China-Ching?” She murmured; ”d'you want to go and be free?”

Her fingers were working swiftly at his collar. As it clanked to the ground she felt him stiffen rigidly beneath her touch. She saw his ears go back flat against his head; she saw his upper lip pulled so that the long, sharp teeth showed glisteningly in the huckle-berry, blue gums.

She followed the set stare of his eyes, and what she saw sent a s.h.i.+ver down her spine.

Coming across the waste that had once been a garden, running stumblingly in the full path of the moonlight, came James. And the other dogs had seen him. She realized that when she heard the growling, the snarling, the low, infuriated snorts.

She rushed back to the gate.

James saw her then.

”Get away,” he shouted. ”Get away from there!”

She threw the gate open and stood leaning against it to keep it wide.

”China-Ching,” she called; ”come on,--China-Ching!”

But it was the other dogs that tore past her. First one, then another, then two together, and then the whole wild, panting pack of them.

”For Gawd's sake;” the man shrieked. ”Get--get--” The words were lost in his breathless choking.

The chow-dog was the last to go. For a second he stood beside her. She bent over him. She was afraid to touch him; afraid that at that moment her hands might involuntarily hold him.

”Go on, China-Ching;” she urged frantically; ”go on!”

”Hey, you--!” The man stormed at the dogs. ”Here--, here--!” He whistled; ”here, boy,--here, old fellow,--come on;--”

He suddenly stood still. He tried to make his whistling persuasive. He was out of breath. When he saw that they would not come to him he ran after them. They scattered pellmell before him. She saw them disappearing in every direction. Some of them slinking away with their tails between their legs; some of them crawling into the bushes on their bellies; some of them rus.h.i.+ng head-long, racing madly into the night.

Only the yellow ma.s.s of the chow-dog went in even padded patter out toward the road.

She waited there for James. She could not think. She only waited.

And at last he came back.

<script>